terms and with characteristic eloquence by Professor Sedgwick, the President, at the Cambridge meeting of the British Association. About this time a subscription was raised by friends in Manchester for a statue, by Chantrey, in his honour; and in May, 1834, Dr. Dalton sat to the sculptor accordingly, who gave his services on very liberal terms. The following characteristic account is given by Dalton himself of his interview with Chantrey, in a letter to Mr. Peter Clare:

"May 2, 1834.-Next morning Mrs. Wood walked through the park with me to Mr. Chantrey's, when we found him in expectation of seeing me. He took a profile as large as life by a camera lucida, and then sketched a front view of the face on paper. We took a walk through his rooms, and saw busts and statues without end. He then gave me the next day for a holiday, and told me I should see my head moulded in clay on Wednesday morning, at which time he invited me to breakfast. I went accordingly, and found, as he said, a head, apparently perfect. He said he had not yet touched it, the head having been formed from his drawings by some of his assistants. He set to work to model and polish a little, whilst I was mostly engaged in reading the newspaper or conversing with him. On looking right and left, he found my ears were not alike, and the modeller had made them alike, so that he immediately cut off the left ear of the bust, and made a new one more resembling the original. Most of the time I was amusing myself with viewing the pictures and statues in the room. At last he took a pitcher and blew a little water in my face (I mean the model), and covered my head with a wet cloth, and we parted, he having desired me to bring Dr. Henry and Dr. Philp with me next morning to breakfast. We went accordingly, and found an abundant table; soon after, Dr. Faraday came in, and we all went into the working room for a time. This morning (sixth day), Mrs. Wood was kind enough to walk with me again to Mr. Chantrey's, and we spent another hour or two under his directions. At intervals we have a little amusement and instruction about our respective arts and sciences, and how we acquired our knowledge, &c., in which we vie with each other, and keep up a lively conversation."

"An engraving from Chantrey's bust is prefixed as a frontispiece to this volume. From this bust Sir Francis Chantrey afterwards modelled the statue of Dalton, of the size of life, now preserved in the entrancehall of the Manchester Royal Institution, and one of the most impressive and intellectual portrait statues by that great artist. A more refined and ideal expression has been bestowed upon the countenance in the statue. The bust is the more faithful portraiture of the philosopher."*

"It was on the occasion of this stay in London that he was first formally admitted as Fellow of the Royal Society," and also presented at Court, through the instrumentality of Mr. Babbage, where he appeared in the scarlet gown of an Oxford Doctor of Civil Law. Mr. Babbage has furnished an amusing account of the ceremony of presentation, and of the preliminary rehearsals to make Dr. Dalton perfect in his part. The King asked him

* Pp. 184, 185.

several questions, which, Mr. Babbage says, excited some jealousy, for he heard one officer say to another, "Who the d-1 is that fellow whom the King keeps talking to so long?" We think we remember hearing that one of the questions asked by the King (William IV.) was, whether the people at Manchester were pretty quiet just then. In the autumn of the same year (1834), on occasion of the meeting of the British Association at Edinburgh, the degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by the unanimous vote of the Senate of the University.

In December, 1834, Dr. Dalton's brother Jonathan died, leaving him his property. Both brothers died of paralysis, and both survived the first seizure some years. Dr. Dalton was present at the meetings of the British Association in 1835 at Dublin, and in 1836 at Bristol, officiating on both occasions as Vicepresident of the Chemical section. He did not communicate any paper to either meeting, but we remember him at Bristol giving a summary criticism of a paper on the Aurora Borealis which had been read, and which he unceremoniously pronounced to be utterly inadequate to account for the phenomena.

On the 18th of April, 1837, he had his first attack of paralysis, followed by a second and slighter seizure three days afterwards; but he had sufficiently recovered in June of the same year to be able to send to the Royal Society his memoir (composed, however, before his illness), entitled, "Sequel to an Essay on the Constitution of the Atmosphere," published in the Philosophical Transactions for 1837. He was unable to be present at the meeting of the British Association in Liverpool in Sept., 1837, for the first time since its formation. His absence was gracefully alluded to by the President, the Earl of Burlington. Through a friend, however, he communicated a short paper on the Nondecomposition of Carbonic Acid by Plants.

In the year 1840, he communicated to the Royal Society an essay on the Phosphates and Arseniates, the main purport of which was to re-assert some of his old ideas. Dr. Henry pronounces this paper to be throughout obscure and in parts scarcely intelligible, obviously the product of a mind weakened by disease; and says that the Council of the Royal Society, in declining to publish it, were unquestionably governed by a true regard to Dalton's reputation. He himself, however, was much mortified by their decision, and having procured a copy of his essay from the archives of the Society, printed it in a separate form, with the indignant comment, "Cavendish, Davy, Wollaston and Gilbert are no more." This sadly reminds us of the Archbishop in Gil Blas. He published, however, some short essays, containing a discovery of considerable importance as to the combination of certain anhydrous salts with water without increase of volume, shewing that the salt enters into the pores of the water. This discovery he applied successfully to the analysis of sugar, which

adds to the bulk of the water dissolving it only that of the water previously combined with it. His view has been subsequently confirmed to a great extent by the elaborate researches of Dr. Lyon Playfair and Mr. Joule.

In June, 1842, the British Association met at Manchester, where Dr. Dalton's impaired articulation and infirm health alone prevented him from filling the office of President, which must otherwise by universal consent have devolved upon him. Lord Francis Egerton (now the Earl of Ellesmere), who occupied the chair, gracefully recognized Dr. Dalton's claim to the distinction. He attended the meeting, however, as one of the Vice-presidents. This was the last memorable event in his intellectual life. He continued for two years longer to spend some hours daily in his laboratory, complaining, however, in his letters, that his memory was gone altogether and his faculties impaired, that it took him three or four times the usual time to perform chemical experiments, and that he was long in calculating. There is, perhaps, nothing in life-no, nor in death-more melancholy than the decline of noble faculties in extreme old age; it conveys so strongly to the imagination the impression that the powerful and accomplished mind which we have revered and loved, is losing its vitality for ever! On the 17th of May, 1844, he had a third paralytic stroke, from which, however, he recovered sufficiently to be present in the following July at a meeting of the Council of the Literary and Philosophical Society, where he received an engrossed copy in vellum of a complimentary resolution passed at the annual meeting, in acknowledgment of his meteorological observations for the previous fifty years. He received it sitting, and handed to his old and attached friend, Mr. Peter Clare, a brief written reply. This was on the 19th of the month. On the 27th, he was no more; his malady returned, and rapidly proved fatal. With questionable taste (considering the simplicity of his life and character), though, doubtless, with the best intentions, the coffin containing his remains was laid in state in the Manchester Town Hall, where it was visited by upwards of forty thousand spectators. A public funeral was resolved on, and the procession consisted of nearly a hundred carriages, with many hundred persons on foot, the funeral train being about three-quarters of a mile in length.

To perpetuate his memory in the town, in addition to the statue by Chantrey in the Royal Institution, a handsome new street, opened out some years ago through an unsightly district, was named John Dalton Street, and upwards of £5000 has been raised by subscription, out of which it is proposed to erect a bronze statue in the grounds of the Royal Infirmary, and to found two scholarships in Chemistry and two in Mathematics, each of the annual value of £25, together with an annual prize for Natural History, all in connection with Owen's College. It

may be mentioned that in his will he had bequeathed £2000" to found, endow or support a Professorship of Chemistry at Oxford;" but in a codicil "he revoked this bequest, in order to provide more largely for the family of his friend the Rev. W. Johns, who had sustained in his old age a heavy pecuniary loss."*

"Dr. Dalton possessed that healthful muscular organization of mind and of body which characterizes the natives of our northern counties, and which has, at all times, commanded for them far more than an average proportion of the higher mathematical honours in the University of Cambridge. *** Dr. Dalton's moral excellences, from his living unmarried and much alone, had a limited field for their manifestation. He enjoyed that equable, healthful tone of nerve, of pulse, and of digestion, of which, whether as cause or effect, a serene temper is the usual exponent. He did not possess a lively sensibility; and his outward bearing, even towards his intimate friends, was calm and undemonstrative. But his attachment, when once deliberately bestowed, on the solid ground of esteem for tried worth, or of the common pursuit of the same objects in science, was never weakened or alienated. His friendships were earnest, steadfast and unalterable; and, if need came, were evidenced by acts of thoughtful generosity. *** His moderate desires, as regards fortune, may be compared with those of the most self-denying of ancient philosophers; and were the more deserving of praise, as he passed the larger portion of his life among a community eagerly engaged in the pursuit of wealth. Many anecdotes have been preserved of the almost ridiculous moderation of his charges for performing chemical analyses. These, which were often merely a few shillings, never, I believe, exceeded a sovereign. He was in the habit of giving his invaluable instruction, in mathematics and chemistry, at the trifling charge of 2s. 6d. per hour, or, if two or more students attended together, at 18. 6d. each for the hour."†

It was one of Dr. Dalton's personal peculiarities that he was unable to learn to swim, which he attributed to the fact that the specific gravity of his body was greater than that of water. He generally enjoyed robust health, but was very sensitive to the presence of lead in water from leaden cisterns, and to the effect of metals generally on his system. Mr. Ransome relates that on one occasion when he was suffering from catarrh, his father prescribed a small dose of James's powder to be taken at bedtime, and, finding him much better on the following morning, attributed the improvement to the medicine; upon which Dalton remarked, "I do not well see how that can be, as I kept the powder until I could have an opportunity of analyzing it."

Dr. Dalton's forehead and the upper part of his face bore a strong resemblance to the engraved portrait of Sir Isaac Newton;

In perusing the Memoir, we have been struck with the sweeping inroads which death has already made among the friends of Dalton who survived him. Of all who are mentioned in the volume as having known him familiarly in life, there are scarcely any who have not followed him to the land of forgetfulness. † Pp. 205-207.

and the members of the British Association present at Cambridge in 1833, were impressed with his likeness to Roubillac's statue of Newton in Trinity College chapel. In his manners and general bearing, though not in the slightest degree vulgar or offensive, he was simple and plain-spoken. It was amusing sometimes to witness the discouraging reception which he gave, though unintentionally, when President of the Literary and Philosophical Society, to any paper of a purely literary character, remarking, perhaps, in his harsh, gruff tones, that the Society were much obliged to the gentleman for his communication, which was, no doubt, extremely interesting-to those who took an interest in such subjects. On one occasion, he was returning with a party of Manchester friends from a visit to the late Mr. Greg, of Quarry Bank (who was distinguished by his dignified courtesy), and remarked, with the utmost naïveté, that Mr. Greg was quite different from most of the manufacturers--he was quite a gentleman! We remember once meeting him at a social party at the house of Mr. Johns, where he lived, and being struck with the fact that the object of our youthful reverence was familiarly addressed by Miss Johns (when we were going down to supper) with the request, "Will you bring the candles, Mr. Dalton?" He had the unassuming simplicity and freedom from affectation natural and becoming to a man of true power, which stands forth in unconscious majesty, all the more impressive to an appreciating eye, from the absence of pretension or display. He was wholly undemonstrative in regard to his religious and political opinions, and unobtrusive in regard to his social duties, but would sometimes give largely in proportion to his means to any benevolent object that he deliberately approved, and was always ready to perform acts of unostentatious kindness. Dr. G. Wilson relates a striking example of his strict regard to truth. A student, who had missed one lecture of a course, applied to him for a certificate of full attendance. Dalton at first declined to give it; but, after thinking a little, replied, "If thou wilt come to-morrow, I will go over the lecture thou hast missed."

We have thought it best not to interrupt the above sketch of the life and personal character of Dr. Dalton, by any digressive attempts to characterize the nature and value of his scientific labours, which we would now make the subject of a few remarks.

We have heard Dr. Dalton quoted as an example of a man who attained to the first rank in the prosecution of a science, viz., chemistry, to which he did not begin to devote himself till he was forty years of age. Professor James Forbes, in his Report on Meteorology, has been still more wide of the mark, on the other side, in speaking of Dalton as one of those who have occasionally stepped aside from their systematic studies, to bestow some permanent mark of their casual notice of a subject they had never intended to prosecute. "Mr. Dalton," he says, "de