The Royal Society and Prize of 50 Guineas. 263 years previous to his admission to the Royal Society he had been deemed worthy of lecturing to the select audiences of the Royal Institution, London; and for six years he had enjoyed the honour of being corresponding member of the French Academy of Sciences. Moreover, long before this tardy recognition of his own countrymen, he had received the sincere homage of the most distinguished savans in Europe, many of whom had visited or corresponded with him: and his works had claimed the attention and warm approval of the best reviewers of the Continent, and, in short, wherever science was taught and understood. In the year 1825 King George IV. founded two annual prizes of fifty guineas, to be at the disposal of the Royal Society. Sir H. Davy, in his anniversary discourse of 1826, made known the award of the first prize to Mr John Dalton, "for the development of the chemical theory of definite proportions, usually called the Atomic Theory, and for his various other labours and discoveries in physical and chemical science." To Mr Dalton belongs the distinction of first unequivocally calling the attention of philosophers to this important subject. Finding that in certain compounds of gaseous bodies the same elements always combined in the same proportions; and that when there was more than one combination the quantity of the elements always had a constant relation, such as 1 to 2 or I to 3, or to 4, he explained this fact on the Newtonian doctrine of indivisible atoms, and contended that the relative weight of one atom to that of any other atom being known, its proportions or weight in all its combinations might be ascertained; thus making the statics of chemistry depend upon simple questions in subtraction or multiplication, and enabling the student to deduce an immense number of facts from a few well-authenticated, accurate experimental results. Mr Dalton's permanent reputation will rest upon his having discovered a simple prin ... ciple universally applicable to the facts of chemistry, in fixing the proportions in which bodies combine, and thus laying the foundation for future labours respecting the sublime and transcendental parts of the science of corpuscular motion. His merits in this respect resemble those of Kepler in astronomy. Mr Dalton has been labouring for more than a quarter of a century with the most disinterested views. With the greatest modesty and simplicity of character he has remained in the obscurity of the country, neither asking for approbation, nor offering himself as an object of applause. He is but lately become a fellow of this Society, and the only communication he has given to you is one, compared with his other works, of comparatively small interest; the feeling of the Council on the subject is therefore pure. I am sure he will be gratified by this mark of your approbation of his long and painful labours. It will give a lustre to his character, which it fully deserves; it will anticipate that opinion which posterity must form of his discoveries; and it may make his example more exciting to others in their search after useful knowledge and true glory. CHAPTER XIV. "There is a history in all men's lives, DR DALTON'S HOLIDAYS-MEMBER OF THE FRENCH INSTITUTE— D.C.L-HIS CLAIMS TO A PENSION-OPINIONS OF DRS HENRY AND SEDGWICK ON THE SUBJECT-COURT PRESENTATION REFUSES KNIGHTHOOD ILLNESS-VISITS TO EAGLESFIELD- W ITH the exception of his weekly half-holiday at the bowling-green, Dalton kept all his terms of service most faithfully, and seldom moved out of town till the summer holidays these he almost invariably spent amid the lakes and mountains of Cumberland and Westmoreland. No change could well be greater than passing from the din and smoke of Manchester to the sylvan banks of Windermere, and the pineclad slopes of northern England. The air was pure, transparent, and bracing, and his ascent of the highest mountains, by bringing every muscle into operation, naturally called for a larger amount of oxygenation to his system. It was a joyous time to Dalton, who no sooner touched his native heather than he seemed to throw off the incubus of age, and all the depressing influences of urban life. He began his trips to the Lake Country when his meteorological fervour was at its height, in the third decade of his life, and as this fervour never entirely abated, he went on from year to year for forty years, or as long as his limbs could support him, in his fatiguing explorations. The pleasure of his holidays was enhanced by the opportunity of embracing work with play, and a certain amount of science with large social liberty. How placidly he spent his first day in boating from Low Wood, and viewing Langdale Pikes and the magnificent scenery around Ambleside! The next morning he was early afoot, armed with his barometer and thermometer, and marching with the firm and constant step of a mountain guide, would climb three thousand feet. It was difficult to his companions, indeed to all but the experienced pedestrian, to keep pace with him in his ascent. This fast walking elicited from one of his Quaker friends the remark, “Why, John, what are thy legs made of?" John's legs were so true to their fellside growth, that the civic restraint of months together seemed in nowise to impair their capacity for the greatest demands of pedestrianship. After his return in an evening from measuring the height of Helvellyn-his favourite mountain for observation-how he enjoyed the roadside hostelryits snug parlour, its neat service, its savoury ham, and the fresh trout from the "beck"-its oat-cakes, and cream cheese, followed by draughts of good home-brewed ale. After a bountiful supply of the inner man, he would take his seat on the rude bench outside the trellised porch of the "White Swan Inn" and smoke his "Virginian," whilst he looked with placid admiration on the green meadows and purling Enjoys the English Lakes and Mountains. 267 waters backed by wooded knolls, and these again overtopped by higher and higher ranges, presenting endless variety of form and colour, either sparkling in light, or dimly shadowed by passing clouds, but ever suggestive and beautiful to the æsthetic mind. On one of these excursions, in 1812, he made the acquaintance of Mr Jonathan Otley, who knew every nook and corner of the Lake District, and who wrote by far the best work on the subject-"A Descriptive Guide to the English Lakes and Adjacent Mountains," -a book now held old-fashioned,* but the basis of all that has been since published in tourist form. Mr Otley has given an interesting narrative of his excursions with Dalton, from which it would appear that the philosopher embraced every opportunity of studying the constitution of the atmosphere, and the transition from cloud to sunshine and from sunshine to shadow, in "those loftier regions." The heights of the mountains, and their marked geological features; the dew point; the quantity and density of vapour; the fall of rain; the direction of the winds, and, in short, all the natural phenomena presenting themselves to the experienced observer, were duly noted and commented upon. He was not easily deterred by the threatening aspects of the weather, but seemed satisfied with the prospects of the day if he could only see, as he used to say, as much blue sky as would make a pair of breeches. Dalton's party was sometimes too large to be ac * To those who really wish to know the Lake District as it ought to be known, let me commend the beautifully-written volume of my clever friend Mrs E. Lynn Linton, entitled, "The Lake Country," neatly illus. trated by her husband. |