18 MEMOIR OF DR. DALTON, AND 



for that large" existence which he knew to be somehow 

 attainable. He thought of a profession. His uncle Thomas 

 Greenup, the barrister, thought that it was entirely out of 

 the reach of a person in Dalton's circumstances to be a bar- 

 rister or a physician, and recommended rather as less difficult, 

 but still much above him, that of an attorney or apothecary. 

 It was at this time that he began to make medical experi- 

 ments, wishing to ascertain the loss from the human body by 

 insensible perspiration, a sufficient proof that however much he 

 might have advanced the knowledge of that profession, he was 

 too much an experimenter and solitary thinker to have been 

 pleased with the active life of some of our medical men. The 

 discouragement received from his friends seems to have pre- 

 vented all exertion in the new direction he had contemplated, 

 and he remained three years longer or until 1793 in Kendal, 

 when Dr. Barnes asked Mr. Gough for a suitable person to 

 teach mathematics in the New College of Manchester. This 

 college had arisen out of the Warrington academy, where 

 Priestley had taught, as well as Dr. Aikin, Dr. Enfield, 

 Reinhold Forster, and Gilbert Wakefield. At that time the 

 college was in the present " College-buildings," in Mosley- 

 street. He lived in the establishment, and remained tutor of 

 mathematics and natural philosophy for six years. Dr. 

 Barnes was the principal. This college is now transferred 

 to Gordon-square, London. Whilst here we find from 

 papers lent me by Mr. Woolley, that in 1794 he had twenty- 

 four pupils for mathematics, mechanics, geometry, algebra, 

 book-keeping, natural philosophy, and chemistry. He used 

 Lavoisier's Elements of Chemistry and Chaptal's amongst 

 others. In 1799 there were twenty-two students. Although 

 Manchester is now multiplied by four, it cannot shew the 

 same number, and I fear that the love of external things has 

 overpowered the love of science. 



As soon as he gave up the intention of studying for a pro- 

 fession, he seems to have decided at once on a regular course 



