10 AN ACCOUNT OF THE EAELY MATHEMATICAL AND 



containing his answers at length to three of the queries, and 

 also to the same number of tlie mathematical questions, they 

 conveyed the gratifying intelligence that he had been awarded 

 the highest " Prize of ten Diaries" for his masterly solution 

 of the prize question. The answer to the Jirst query is 

 printed in the Supplement, and inquires whether " it is pos- 

 sible for two persons of opposite sexes to hold a strict friend- 

 ship with each other without some degree of love." Mr. 

 Dalton maintains the affirmative, provided *' the ardour of 

 youth is moderated by time, and reason and religion have 

 reduced the passions into due subordination." The answer to 

 the second query appears in the Diary itself. It relates to 

 the red appearance of the atmosphere as indicative of ap- 

 proaching wind or rain, when seen in the morning, or of fair 

 weather, when seen at sunset. Mr. Dalton admits that " the 

 observation in the query is perhaps as well founded as any in 

 meteorology, ***** ^q^ ^i^jj regard 

 to the cause [he is] afraid nothing but hypotheses, unsup- 

 ported by facts, can be advanced, as our philosophy of the 

 atmosphere is yet only in its infancy. There need, however, 

 be no wonder that similar appearances in the evening and 

 morning are followed by different consequences, as the air at 

 the former time is generally in a cooling state, and in a heat- 

 ing one in the latter." His remarks on the ffth query are 

 found in the Supplement, from which it appears he considered 

 " the act of yawning, with numerous other involuntary acts 

 of the like nature, to proceed from that distinguishing feature 

 of humanity, sympathy^' A considerable variety of answers 

 to this query are furnished by the correspondents to the 

 Diary, most of which agree in principle with the preceding, 

 and the editor adds " a remarkable instance" to the number, 

 in consequence of his having been "seized with an extra- 

 ordinary fit of yawning while writing out most of the 

 solutions." 



