Philosophizes and Dines Cheaply. 241 Johns, in which there is a curious mingling of potatoes and philosophy, with an eye to Bond Street fashions and pretty women : On Tuesday I spent greater part of the day (morning, they call it here) with Mr Davy in the laboratory of the Royal Institution. Sir J. Sebright, M.P., who is becoming a student of chemistry, was present. On Wednesday I attended Mr Bond's lecture on astronomy, and prepared for mine the next day. On Thursday, at two, I gave my first lecture. Mr Pearson, a former acquaintance, went home with me after the lecture, and we had a long discussion on mechanics. Mr Davy had invited me to dine with the club of the Royal Society at the Crown and Anchor at five o'clock; but I was detained till nearly six. I got there, and called Davy out. All was over; the cheese was come out. I went, therefore, to the nearest eatinghouse I could find to get a dinner. Looking in at a window, I saw a great heap of pewter plates, and some small oblong tables covered with cloths. I went in and asked for a beefsteak. "No." What can I have? "Boiled beef." Bring some immediately. There was nothing eatable visible in the room, but in three minutes I had placed before me a large pewter plate covered completely with a slice of excellent boiled beef swimming in gravy, two or three potatoes, bread, mustard, and a pint of porter. Never got a better dinner. It cost me 11d. I should have paid 75. at the Crown and Anchor. I then went to the Royal Society, and heard a summary of Davy's paper on chemistry, and one of Home's on the poison of the rattlesnake; Sir J. Banks in the chair. Davy is coming very fast into my views on chemical subjects. On Friday I was preparing for my second lecture. I received a visit from Dr Roget. On the evening I was attacked with sore throat. I sweated it well in the night with clothing, but it was bad on Saturday, and I was obliged to beg a little indulgence of my auditors on the score of exertion. However, I got through better than I expected. I kept in on Sunday and Monday and got pretty well recruited. On Tuesday I had my third lecture, after which I went to dine at a tavern to meet the Chemical Club. There were five of us, two of whom were Wollaston and Davy, Q secretaries of the Royal Society. We had much discussion on chemicals. Wollaston is one of the cleverest men I have yet seen here. To-day, that is Thursday (for I have had this letter two or three days in hand), I had my fourth lecture. I find several ingenious and inquisitive people of the audience. I held a long conversation to-day with a lady on the subject of rain-gauges. Several have been wonderfully struck with Mr Ewart's doctrine of mechanical force. I believe it will soon become a prevalent doctrine. I should tell Mrs J. something of the fashions here, but it is so much out of my province, that I feel rather awkward. I see the belles of New Bond Street every day, but I am more taken up with their faces than their dresses. I think blue and red are the favourite colours. Some of the ladies seem to have their dresses as tight round them as a drum, others throw them round like a blanket. I do not know how it happens, but I fancy pretty women look well either way. I am very regular with my breakfast, but other meals are so uncertain that I never know when or what. Hitherto I have dined at from two to seven o'clock; as for tea, I generally have a cup between nine and ten, and, of course, no supper. I am not very fond of this way of proceeding. They say things naturally find their level, but I do not think it is the case in London. I sent for a basin of soup the other day before I went to lecture, thinking I should have a good threepenny-worth, but I found they charged me one shilling and ninepence for a pint, which was not better than some of our Mary's broth. Of course, I could not digest much more of the soup. Another letter, similarly addressed, shows the narrow escape that Dalton had from lead-poisoning in the use of his favourite beverage-porter. LONDON, January 29, 1810. You may perhaps have heard from Dr Henry that I have been nearly as ill as formerly, that I have been nearly poisoned since I came here. I had been about three weeks when I discovered it was the porter which produced the effects. I Among the London Celebrities. 243 have not had a drop since, and have never had any more of the symptoms. [This was owing to the presence of lead in the porter drawn through leaden pipes at the bar of the publichouse.] I have had a pretty arduous work, as you may imagine, having had three lectures to prepare each week, to attend two others, and to visit and to receive visits occasionally besides. I find myself just now in the focus of the great and learned of the metropolis. On Saturday evening I had a discussion with Dr Wollaston, and a party at Mr Lowry's. On Sunday evening, last night, I was introduced to Sir Joseph Banks, at his house, by Sir John Sebright. Sir Joseph said, "O Mr Dalton, I know him very well; glad to see you; hope you are well," &c. There were forty or more of the leading scientific characters present, many of whom were my previous acquaintances, such as Sir Charles Blagden, Drs Wollaston, Marcet, Berger, and Roget; Messrs Cavendish, Davy, Tennant, Lawson, &c. We had conversation for about an hour or more in Sir Joseph's library, when the company dispersed. Το judge from the number of carriages at the door it might be a court levee. I paid a visit, in company with Dr Lowry, to Dr Rees, the other day; we spent an hour in conversation in the doctor's library. The doctor seems a worthy philosopher of the old school; his evening lucubrations are duly scented with genuine Virginia. From all that can be learned of Dalton's mode of lecturing, it would appear that his facts and experiments were more worthy of approval than either hist manner or his language. London audiences were accustomed to listen to the eloquence of Davy, and the academic exposition of Wollaston and other celebrities; so that Dalton could hardly expect the laudation of critics. One of them, a writer in the Quarterly Review, vol. xcvi., said, "His voice was harsh, indistinct, and unemphatical, and he was sin gularly wanting in the language and power of illustration, needful to a lecturer on these high matters of philosophy, and by which Davy and Faraday had given such lustre to their discoveries. Among other instances of his odd appropriation of epithets, we recollect that in treating of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, &c., those great elements which pervade all nature, he generally spoke of them as these articles, describing their qualities with far less earnestness than a London linendraper would shew in commending the very different articles which lie on his shelves." CHAPTER XIII. "The character of the true philosopher is to hope all things not impossible, and to believe all things not unreasonable."-SIR JOHN HERSCHEL. VISIT FROM M. PELLETAN-DALTON'S APPARATUS-CHEMICAL PRO- M ONS. PELLETAN of Paris visited Manchester in 1820, for the sole purpose of paying his respects to the founder of the atomic theory. He fancied that Dalton would be occupying a professor's chair, surrounded by adepts in science and hundreds of ingenuous youths; residing in a handsome mansion in a handsome square of the city, or enjoying his otium cum dignitate in a suburban villa, with roses embellishing its porch; in short, the great representative man of Manchester, and wellknown and appreciated by every citizen. Judge of his surprise when Monsieur Dalton, le philosophe, could only be found after much inquiry, and when found, was engaged looking over the shoulders of a boy figuring numbers on a slate. The Frenchman, doubting his senses, asked the grey-headed gentleman if he really had the honour of addressing Monsieur Dalton. "Yes," replied Dalton; "will you sit down till I put this lad right about his arithmetic." "What! a philosopher of European fame acting as schoolmaster |