HISTORY OF THE ATOMIC THEORY. IQ 



of investigation and in the interval from that time to 1793, 

 when he went to Manchester, produced his first work properly 

 so called, his " Meteorological Observations and Essays ;" they 

 were not, however, published until he had taken up his 

 position at the college. 



This book contains an extensive series of observations on 

 old and new subjects, comprising ideas sometimes new, some- 

 times old, and at other times modifications oFthe old. He 

 enters into the discussion of the cause of the rise and fall of 

 the barometer, which he decides to be the existence of the 

 vapour of water in the air. Also he discusses the state of 

 water in the atmosphere, shewing it to be an elastic vapour 

 existing like any other gas not in chemical combination. 

 Then he treats of evaporation from the earth's surface, clouds 

 and rain, and allied phenomena, bringing, as Professor Sedgwick 

 says, "the elements themselves under his own intellectual 

 domination." The extent and variety of these inquiries prove 

 the earnestness with which he studied in his almost solitude 

 in Cumberland. The work seems to have been at first 

 intended as a popular treatise on meteorology. It begins 

 with a description of the barometer, then come the thermo- 

 meter, hygrometer, and rain gauges; connected with these 

 are tables of observations made at Kendal and Keswick. 

 There seems to be a looseness of description in the first part 

 of the volume, which would seem to imply that the matter 

 was easily understood, and the readers could make out the 

 particulars for themselves. As he proceeds, however, he 

 seems to feel that he has a harder task to perform, and 

 speaks rather to scientific than to popular hearers, whilst we 

 gradually become aware that he is a close and precise rea- 

 soner. His style is very simple; he goes directly to his 

 point ; all inessential parts are left out. He seems to move 

 forward with a heavy dogged tread, never turning his head 

 aside, but as any style may become a fault if too far carried 

 out, we find that in his there are left out many things that 



