a double quantity; but the truth is, that Whilst men were engaged in weighing this could not be done directly, no means simple bodies and compound ones, and ob of obtaining it without water being known; taining their atomic weights, half conand if we suppose he weighed it with an sciously heaping proof upon proof, by atom of water in it, he is certainly not far mineral analysis, of the fixed laws of comfrom the truth. But accuracy has nothing bination, proving daily that compounds to do with the question: Dalton himself contained always the same proportion of was never accurate, except in his general simple bodies, and actually expressing by laws. We must give another quotation clear words what occurred in the combifrom Higgins (page 37). "As two cubic nation, we almost feel inclined to ask, was inches of light inflammable air require but it necessary for Dalton to tell them what one of dephlogisticated air to condense they meant? It was necessary. We may them, we must suppose that they contain mention, that Higgins published another equal numbers of divisions, and that the edition of his work (Dublin, 1814), in difference of their specific gravity depends which the phrases are adapted more to the chiefly on the size of their ultimate par-language of the time. He wrote also ticles; or we must suppose that the ulti-many attacks on Dalton, who had never mate particles of light inflammable air re-known of his existence at the time he pubquire two, or three, or more, of dephlogis-lished his theory, and whose only reply ticated air to saturate them. If the latter was, "Who can answer such abusive lanwere the case, we might produce water in guage?" an intermediate state, as well as the vitriol- We shall now give Dalton's announceic or nitric acid, which appears to be im-ment of his theory. At page 212 of the possible; for in whatever proportion we edition before us of the 'New System,' he mix our airs, or under whatsoever circum- says, "In all chemical investigations it has stances we combine them, the result is in- justly been considered an important object variably the same. This likewise may be to ascertain the relative weights of the simobserved with respect to the decomposition ples which constitute a compound. But, of water. Hence we may justly conclude unfortunately, the inquiry has terminated that water is composed of molecules, form- here, whereas from the relative weights in ed by the union of a single particle of de- the mass, the relative weights of the ultiphlogisticated air to an ultimate particle of mate particles or atoms of the bodies might light inflammable air; and that they are have been inferred, from which their num incapable of uniting to a third particle, of ber and weight in various other compounds either of their constituent principles." The would appear, in order to assist and to above is from the second edition. We guide future investigations, and to connect have not the first edition before us; and their results. Now it is one great obcertainly all of us will be willing to repeat ject of this work to show the importance with Higgins, quoting Horace on his titlepage, "Est quodam prodire tenus si non datur ultra." But how we go ultra in this case, it is very hard to see; could it be said in plainer or truer language? So far as we know that it has never yet been done. It is almost painful, then, to be still inclined to repeat what we said above, that he was not gifted with a clear sight of Here is expressed with the greatest ease the length and breadth and depth of his all that was wanted. The succession of opinions. Had he continued reasoning in his investigations had prepared him for this this mode he would have done all that of course; but they had only made clearer Dalton has done, but he lost himself after- and given a universal character to the wards in the calculation of forces. His opinions, or rather his perceptions of matmind had the reasoning faculty predomi- ter, which he shows to have been familiar nating over the observing: it required to him from the earliest period of his caa mind whose very reasonings were obser-reer. Dr. Thompson says that Dalton first vations, whose every thought was a con-informed him that the observation of olestant combining of physical properties, to ant gas and carburetted hydrogen first carry this principle of combination into the led him to look into the inner constitution whole extension of the science. of chemical compounds. He found that if and advantage of ascertaining the relative weights of the ultimate particles both of simple and compound bodies, the number of simple elementary bodies which constitute one compound particle, and the number of less compound particles which enter into the formation of one more compound particle." But not to follow that subject: the idea of Dalton, as it was the germ of all that was known both before and after him, explained also why the weights of atoms should be in reciprocal proportions. In fact, to the truth then known it distinctly said, it is so, it cannot be otherwise; to the falsehood it said simply, such is not the case; and no one has been required either to confirm the one, or able to render infirm the other. we reckon the carbon in each to be the themselves in the darkness which produced same, then carburetted hydrogen gas con- them. If any theory can be found simtains exactly twice as much hydrogen as ple, it is his; if any universal, it is his; if olefiant gas. This seemed to point out any can be found which may be said to be clearly that if there be one proportion of unchangeable through ages, it is his. It hydrogen in the one, and two in the other, has no fear of future; no alteration in the the same must hold good in all the smallest science can affect it, no discovery of eleparticles also; and proceeding to the ulti-ments in our present elements can in the mate particle, it must contain one atom of least alter it. But if it be desired that we carbon and one of hydrogen. That this should believe that these combinations are suggested to him the theory can scarcely formed by bodies with qualities such as he be considered quite correct. It may have describes, hard and unchangeable, and that first given him clear notions of its value, they approached each other in the manner in but his prior investigations all show that which he paints them,-an opinion to which his mind was saturated, we may say, with he unfortunately attached much importance, the atomic theory, from his first appear--then must we, in company with the greatance before the public. That the ex- er portion of thinking men which we have amination of these gases was one of the met, consider such an hypothesis as scarceimportant processes through which the ly conceivable by the greatest stretch of his truth became perfected, we can well be- fancy, although some actually consider it to lieve; and probably the order of inves- be the simple common-sense explanation. tigation has been nowhere better given than by Dr. Wilson, of Edinburgh, in the 'British Quarterly Review." His own investigations, his own experiments, were brought as proofs of his own conclusions; and when these gases were examined, the whole result seems to have fitted so well with his previous ideas as scarcely to have surprised him. Accordingly we find that he left Dr. Thomson, of Glasgow, to deal the subject to the public for several years, It may appear remarkable to some that and when at last he published it, he brought we should talk of the atomic theory, and it forward with little pomp, and as a truth still talk of its undisputed stability. The beyond contradiction. When we give so word theory is used in its sense of a thing much to those who worked upon the sub- well seen, not in the sense in which it is ject before Dalton, we do not mean to take sometimes used, as a thing dimly seen; and any merit from him, and far out as they the practice of the age allows both meandid work it they in nowise assisted him. ings to the word. The combining proporThis is not said from a knowledge of the tions of bodies are known, and are not facts that Higgins was unknown to him till vague, nor can any thing change our view 1810, and Wenzel and Richter till still of them but a change in Nature's self. later, and certainly not until some years The idea of numberless hard bodies called after his discovery; but it is said from a atoms, created in the beginning, and imperknowledge of the nature of his own reason-ishable but by a fiat of the Creator, saying, ings and the previous character of his mind" Let there be nothing where the earth now displayed in his writings. The one idea is," is an hypothesis against which proofs which he had of atoms was so clear that all sufficient could be brought, much beautiful the others naturally flowed from it. Those matter might be written; but science is who talked of the Wenzel and Richter salts, not yet in a position to give an explanation who spoke of the fixed forms of salts which shall express the universal feelings and minerals, and some gases, were now and opinions of men upon the subject. As entirely silenced: the minerals, if con- chemists now use the term, the atomic thestant, could not be otherwise; the salts, if ory is no hypothesis; it is the doctrine of not found constant, were considered to be combining proportions,—a law so universal, badly analyzed; and this theory, if theory so beautiful, so unerring, so utterly without it be called, took immediate command of any repeal in the highest or lowest courts the finest balances, and endless theories of explored nature,-such a sure guide to were found rapidly to disappear, hiding those works of nature which it superin tends, that if any one is incapable of strength; no yielding to the opinions of seeing a universal fitness in creation, he others drawing him aside to the right hand has only to look at the dullest lump of mat- or to the left; an imagination curbed or ter, of clay, sand, or mud, from any clime, silent; those moral sympathies which the formed at any age, be it matter kept for love of literature proves to be in men weak ages in the water or taken from the fires of and neglected, developed no farther in him, the volcano, and the fitness is to be found, the great searcher of nature, than may be not by mere imagination, not by mere rea- seen in the most uneducated man in our soning, but by taking the balance and prov- social system:-he stands before us with ing that the oxygen in each of these speci- an isolated grandeur sufficient to absorb the mens unites with an equal weight of silicon, pity that some minds must feel for one aluminum, or calcium, and that each ele- whose moral sympathies are not drawn out ment, each particle of each, was made to fit in an equal ratio with his intellectual poweach of the particles of its fellow-elements. ers. Let us not be mistaken: Dalton was Whether we can say the same of the whole a kind man and an agreeable companion, universe is a different question. The fit- an upright and a moral man; but these ness may not be in such minute particles faculties were simple, and were not more when we leave our own solar system, or it highly cultivated than we see in ignorant may be somewhat altered when we leave minds. That he curbed all his passions our own globe; but so far we might safely and his expressions is certain; whether suppose many general analogies in the ele- from principle or from the original formation. ments composing our system, having so of his mind we cannot say; but his soul many of the same conditions of existence, never expanded in his warmest, and in his and growing under so many of the same in- most animated and playful moments he was fluences. Could we establish the partic- never without a breastplate. This bespeaks ulars of the nebular theory,-could we a man of strong will, of great self-possession. prove that all the plants were in a gaseous He had too much self-respect to be seen to form together, we might then see more seek fame, and was almost too proud to of the subject; but we see animal and ve- take notice of it when gained. Unaccomgetable life to have changed so much, so panied, however, with haughtiness, but the many movements like to creations made at most child-like simplicity, his dignity selvarious times upon the earth, so many adap- dom showed itself except on a few occatations of structure to habits, moral and sions, and even then it was not until many physical creations made and unmade (whe-years of fame had given him a standing. ther by a law or without a law is not to the If we are correct in giving these elements purpose), that he must be excused who pauses for a little before he believes that creative power, which would seem to be not a momentary impulse, but a continuous or it may be an eternal agent, has, or has had, something to do, as well with the inorganic as the organic structures of the earth. of his character this prominence, raising the observing and reflecting, but especially the former, and sinking the rest of the man down to a beautiful simplicity, rare in a great man, but not rare in many of the mass, we find at least an unusual character, and have some idea of the power requisite to do such work as he did. Before we say more, we shall give a few examples of his mode of reasoning, which show the great predominance of his observing powers, protruding themselves as they do every where, and at no time allowing themselves rest when the other faculties are in action. His reasoning is a succession of pictures, his conclusions are results of observation on those pictures laid before us, so that we almost suppose that we arrive at the conclusion without the trouble of reflection. He says It is an interesting thing to consider the cast of mind necessary to a great discovery, and the mind also which makes a discovery. With Dalton they are both one, as the extraordinary unity of the man left two forms of mind as a thing impossible for him. A physical constitution, calm, steady, unexcitable; a mental constitution the same; no violent feelings, no strong passions, no enthusiasm which could not be instantly repressed-not as much as to cause involuntary haste in moving a limb, in drawing a conclusion, or in making an experiment; no inertness tempting him to rest when he "When we contemplate the disposition of had strength to work; no weariness of the globular particles in a volume of pure elasmind, no fatiguing of his body; working tic fluid, we perceive it must be analogous to neither too much nor too little for his that of a square pile of shot, the particles must be disposed in horizontal strata, each four par- ment of the universe; nothing so small that ticles forming a square; in a superior stratum it should remain forgotten, when the powers each four particles rests upon four particles of creation assembled together! We might below the points of its contact with all four; almost say, every thing is every where. As being forty-five degrees above the horizontal plane, or that plane which passes through the Newton saw matter in its largeness and centre of the four particles. On this account unity, Dalton saw it in its minuteness and the pressure is steady and uniform through- separateness. The one saw the unity of the out." whole, the other strongly insisted on the individuality of its parts. Both spoke great truths. Again "A vessel of any pure elastic fluid presents a picture like one full of small shot. The globules are all of the same size; but the particles of the fluid differ from those of the shot, in that they are constituted of an exceedingly small central atom of solid matter, which is surrounded by an atmosphere of heat." We have observed that Dalton never read much, and probably more in his later than earlier life. His mind was peculiarly fitted for inquiring and recording, but peculiarly unfitted for following the reasonings of others. This seems to have happened not In such clear figurings does he continue from mere obstinacy, but from a natural to explain himself. By reasoning on an at- self-reliance, and a habit of believing so mosphere of mixed gases, which have no re- firmly whatever his senses took cognizance pulsion for each other, but follow each the of; a proof that these were stronger in him law of its own gravitation, he explains in a than any other faculties; as many of the mechanical manner the law of the constant feelings, had they been more lively in him, composition of the atmosphere, the particles would have tended to make him consider of the gases falling downwards upon each the works of others; and had he reflected other until they attain a position in which more than he observed, he would have paid they can support the incumbent weight. more attention to the reasonings of other He has not, however, attempted to explain men. He still preserved his own atomic how the little central particle exists in the weights when every chemist had adopted large globe of heat which surrounds it, nor those now established. what use the centre can have, since the circumference does all the work, holds all the properties, and seems to know nothing of foreign relations, except that it was present when the deeds were drawn out, and appended its signature, which after all seems to be a mere matter of form. In a long, steady, and busy life, but, as far as external movements go, entirely monotonous, Dalton's whole history may be found in the books before us. He lectured in the Royal Institution in 1804, and afterwards in 1810. Strange that Davy and Wallaston ridiculed his theory so much. Dalton's conception of atoms was so nat- Afterwards, when Davy was converted, he ural and easy to him, that he spoke of them urged the claims of Higgins against Dalas things which he could see. His usual ton, at which the latter was much disillustration was a pile of shot. He talked pleased, but was too dignified to speak of of these invisible beings as a geologist would the matter. In 1822 he went to France, of the movement of a glacier, or of trans- where we need not describe his reception ported boulder-stones; and traced an atom otherwise than in his own words, and in a of hydrogen through the masses of a pile of man of Dalton's temperament they had all oxygen atoms, as an astronomer would a the meaning they bear. He said quietly to comet influenced by the attractions and re- a friend on his return, "If any Englishman pulsions met on all sides in its way through has reason to be proud of his reception in space. Newton had probably the grandest France, I have." He was made a Foreign idea of matter words ever expressed, if in- Fellow of the French institute, Fellow of deed they can be said to express all that is the Royal Society, and Doctor of Civil law, contained in the conception, Gravitation, a a title he prized very much; but he shone universal dependence in creation, a unity in as President of the Literary and Philosophiall existing things. Ages have been found cal Society of Manchester, to which he was requisite to teach man the omnipresence of elected annually from the year 1817 till his God, and one man taught us the omnipre- death, and to which he gave his principal sence of matter. Strange fact, that the in- papers. It would little suffice to tell of his fluence of the clods beneath us is felt every-visits to the great, of the visits of the great where; that there is nothing so trivial that to him, of his presentation at court, and of it has not something to say in the govern- the honor bestowed on him by the British VOL. VIII.-No. I. 41 Association. But we may say that he seems and plainly that a great man had taken leave science. best might soon be decided. We read of a Simple beyond the most of men, he lived with few wants in his house or in his laboratory, showing little of himself to his fellow-men, but marking the age with his footsteps. Unwearied, and mechanically regular in all things, he made his observations with no more regularity than he went to the bowling-green regularly on In 1833 a pension of 1507. was granted Thursday afternoon with a few friends,him from the Civil List, and in 1836 it was not philosophers, not the great, but such as raised to 3007. Some time between those he had long known. He had great pleasure two periods his paternal property fell to him in visiting his old friends in Kendal and Kesby the death of his brother, amounting to wick; and when one of his prouder comabout another annual 1507. To a man who panions wished him to leave the place in lived so simply, this was more than was want- which they were met, as not being suffici d, so that he left above 9,000l. at his death. ently dignified in appearance, he only said, His body lay in state in the Town Hall," I see them seldom,-you, I can see every and a long procession followed him to the day in Manchester." Dalton was not a man grave, whilst all business was suspended for to be frightened by any of the hobgoblins the time in Manchester. He was buried in that hover around respectability, nor can a vault in the Ardwick Green Cemetery. The long procession was much to the annoyance of some of the Society of Friends, but it did one good thing-it told out loudly we find a man any where so thoroughly inde- 1 |