Saturday 03 Aug 1844 (p. 3, col. 5-6) DEATH OF DR. DALTON. [cont.] ----- "On withdrawing from the college, in the year 1799, DALTON began to teach mathematics and natural philosophy privately, at his residence in Faulkner-street. He did not remain there very long, but removed to the house of John COCKBAIN, one of the Society of Friends, of which he was member, and he then first occupied, for the purpose of study and instruction, the lower rooms in the building of the Literary and Philosophical Society, in George-street, where he has since continued. After living some time with Mr. COCKBAIN, DALTON quitted his house for that of the Rev. William JOHNS, in the same street, immediately opposite his laboratory. Except when called to the private seminaries at which he gave lessons, the few yards which intervened between his residence and laboratory formed the boundary of the philosopher's daily perambulations, until last year (1835,) when the progress of commerce requiring new depots, the whole line of houses was sold for warehousing, and the doctor was ejected. He then took a house for his own undivided occupancy in Faulkner-street, still keeping within a few moments' walk of his laboratory. But in these details, interesting as respects such a man as Dr. DALTON, we have anticipated somewhat the current of events. His removal from Kendal to Manchester both extended the sphere of DALTON's rising ability, and added greatly to his means of pursuing his favourite studies. He became a member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society in 1794; and it is singular that the first paper which he read in his capacity of a member, related to a peculiarity of vision with which he was affected. The essay is entitled 'Extraordinary facts relating to the vision of colours, with observations, by Mr. John DALTON,' and appears in vol. 5, part 1, of the 'Society's Transactions,' as having been read on the 31st October, 1794. "From the date of this, his first essay, DALTON was a liberal and constant contributor to the memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society. They abound with the fruits of those scientific investigations which were his constant employment. It is not a little curious that nearly all the experiments upon which DALTON's discoveries were founded, were made with an apparatus of the simplest—it might be said the rudest description. The greatest of Dr. DALTON's discoveries,—the discovery, namely, of the atomic theory,—first presented itself to the philosopher's mind in 1803 or 1804. In the latter year he made some general reference to it, and he also touched upon it in his lectures in this town. In 1807 he developed his views more fully in lectures delivered at Edinburgh and at Glasgow, before the members of the two universities. The merit, however, was not immediately awarded to him, other men claiming at least to participate in the honour. Among those was HIGGINS, professor of chemistry at Dublin, who, in his lectures, boldly declared that DALTON was indebted to him for a discovery which he was claiming as his own. "The world has now, however, arrived at a correct conclusion; DALTON's measures are no longer in the balance; and HIGGINS is considered to have arrogated to the developement of isolated facts praises that were due to the law whereon those facts were based. DALTON was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in the year 1821 or 1822; and since then other marks of distinction have been conferred upon him. On the first opportunity he was admitted a corresponding member of the Institute of France; and a few years afterwards he was enrolled one of the Foreign Fellows, of whom the number is very limited. He was President of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, which office he attained in 1817, after filling for many years the subordinate ones of secretary and vice-president. He was also a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Royal Academies of Science of Berlin and Munich, and the Natural History Society of Moscow; an honorary member of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh, and of the Philosophical Societies of Bristol, Cambridge, Leeds, Sheffield, and Yorkshire. "He visited France in the year 1822, having left England with only one introduction (from Mr. KENNEDY, of this town) to BREQUET, an eminent mechanic in Paris, and a member of the institute, to whom he also carried, as his credentials, a watch of his make. BREQUET, who had some time previously sent to DALTON, for his approval, an instrument of his own invention for measuring degrees of temperature, heard the name of his distinguished visitor with the greatest delight, speedily made his arrival known to the savans of Paris, and on the following day DALTON received an invitation from the Marquis LA PLACE. At his table he was introduced to all the leading philosophers of France, who one and all offered tribute to his great attainments. "In 1826, George IV. having presented to the Royal Society the sum of one hundred guineas (intended to be paid annually) for the purchase of two gold medals to be awarded by the council to such individuals as were most eminent for their scientific discoveries, the council unanimously awarded the first to Dr. DALTON. Until 1833, the only memorial of DALTON was a portrait painted by ALLEN, who, though only an occasional resident in the town, felt that he should be honoured in perpetuating the remembrance of such a man, and he made an offer to the members of the Literary and Philosophical Society, which they were glad to accept. DALTON had been requested to sit to him in 1814; and his portrait now adorns the society's room of meeting. Subsequently, his friends were anxious to secure its counterpart, and it was engraved. In 1833, a subscription was opened by some of his more ardent admirers; and the sum of £2,000 having been raised, arrangements were made for obtaining a full-length statue of the great philosopher, from Sir Francis CHANTREY, who brought to the execution of his task, besides his great skill, a warm admiration of his subject, and a proportionate desire to do him justice. The statue, when completed, was deposited in the entrance hall of the Royal Manchester Institution. "It being necessary that CHANTREY should take a bust of DALTON, he was invited to visit London for that purpose. During a stay of a fortnight in the great metropolis, he was treated with the utmost consideration by scientific men, and invited to the soirées of the Duke of Sussex, who received him most graciously, and in a manner somewhat original. "I am very glad to see you (his royal highness is reported to have said): I am too ill to go down to Manchester to see you, and it is very kind in you to come to town to see me." His friends in London conceived it only fitting that our townsman should pay his respects to royalty, and arrangements were accordingly made for his presentation at the levee. Mr. BABBAGE undertook to escort him to the Palace, and the then Chancellor (Lord BROUGHAM) at once acceded to an application which was made to him, to present the philosopher to his majesty. "About the same time, some acknowledgment of his great powers was made by the government, in conferring upon him a pension. It was publicly announced at Cambridge, at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, of which the first meeting had been held at York. DALTON attended this meeting, and took an active part in the business of the various sections, in which he had, almost for the first time, an opportunity of communicating freely with the scientific men of the day, all of whom offered him every mark of respect. The next meeting of the Association was held in the following year at Oxford, and the University availed themselves of his presence to present him with the degree of Doctor of Civil Law. A public convocation was held for the purpose of transferring the same honour on Sir David BREWSTER, FARRADAY, and BROWN, each of whom was introduced by Dr. PHILLIMORE, in a Latin oration, to the Vice-Chancellor. DALTON was the last presented, and great as had been the applause on the other three philosophers, he carried away the meed of their warmest approbation. He was elected by the Association, President of the Chemical Section for that year; and, at all their meetings, the highest seat was appointed for him. [It was at this meeting that Professor SEDGWICK, the President of the year, thus eloquently spoke of Dr. DALTON and his discoveries:— "There was a philosopher among them, whose hair was blanched by time, whose features had some of the lines of approaching old age, but possessing an intellect still in its healthiest vigour—a man whose whole life had been devoted to the cause of truth—he meant his venerable friend, Dr. DALTON. Without any powerful apparatus for making philosophical experiments—with an apparatus, indeed, many of them might think almost contemptible—and with very little external means for employing his great natural powers, he had gone straight forward in his distinguished course, and obtained for himself, in those branches of knowledge he had cultivated, a name not, perhaps, equalled by that of any other living philosopher in the world. From the hour he came from his mother's womb, the God of Nature had laid his hands upon his head, and ordained him for the administration of high philosophy. But his natural talents, great as they were, and his almost intuitive skill in tracing the relations of material phenomena, would have been comparatively of little value to himself and to society, had there not been superadded to them a beautiful moral simplicity and singleness of heart which made him go on steadily in the way he saw before him, without turning to the right hand or to the left, and taught him to do homage to no authority before that of truth. Fixing his eye on the highest views of science, his experiments had never an insulated character, but were always made as contributions towards one important end; were amongst the steps towards some lofty generalization. And with a most happy prescience of the points towards which the rays of scattered experiments were converging, he had more than once seen light while to other eyes all was yet in darkness—out of seeming confusion had elicited order—and had thus reached the high distinction of becoming one of the greatest legislators of chemical science. While travelling amongst the highest mountains of Cumberland, and scarifying the face of nature with his hammer, he (Professor SEDGWICK) had the happiness of first being admitted to the friendship of this great and good man, who was at that time employed, day by day, in searing among the heavens, and bringing the turbulent elements themselves under his own intellectual domination."] "In 1834, the meeting of the British Association was held at Edinburgh, and again distinctions were forced upon him. The town council presented to him the freedom of the city. In the same year, the University of Edinburgh conferred upon him the degree of LL.D., his diploma being signed by nearly thirty of the Professors, and he was made Fellow of the Royal Society of that city. "Although seduced by these meetings to a short absence from his laboratory, Dr. DALTON was not a frequent traveller. For many years, however, he paid a periodical visit to his native mountains of Cumberland and Westmoreland, pursuing there his philosophical investigations of the constitution of the atmosphere. On these occasions he invariably ascended Helvellyn, and often Skiddaw, from the double impulse of gratifying his ruling passion for inquiry, and an ardent admiration of nature, and the beauties of those magnificent regions."