1 84 MEMOIR OF DR. DALTON, AND 



sented the comparative number of his atoms, but this he did not 

 see with any distinctness, or he would have used Kirwan's 

 numbers, which he knew well enough, and would have found in 

 them atomic weights. But atomic weights were never thought 

 of at all. It was not even certain then that all matters 

 gravitated, although he held the present opinions on it. He 

 reasoned to a certain extent in the true spirit of the atomic 

 theory, but becoming entirely involved in dynamics, he entirely 

 missed his way. Dynamics have hitherto entirely failed in 

 chemistry. Their power has been used in upsetting their 

 friends, and Higgins fell a victim to their forces. 



Having for a moment laid hold of the idea that bodies 

 which are atomically constituted must be formed of the union 

 of one or more bodies, and of no intermediate atoms, he drew 

 insufficient conclusions, and all its prospective advantages 

 were lost to him. The want of suitable results, which it was 

 his fault for not finding, seems to have caused him to let go his 

 magic weapon, or to view his own opinion as a speculation. 

 In his mind they exist as very little more. 



I look upon him as the first man who ever in his imagina- 

 tion formed a correct atomic compound, and gave a correct 

 analysis, in spite of the thousands of previous speculations 

 and the simplicity of the idea, but one who lost the oppor- 

 tunity of elevating his idea into a great law of nature. It is 

 well to express the claim of a discoverer in the widest and 

 in the fewest words. He expressed the fact of atomic simple 

 and multiple proportion, which is the foundation for all the 

 other atomic laws, although in his mind it was not raised to 

 the dignity of a great law, and it is for great laws only that 

 we can give great honours in this case. 



Higgins speaks so clearly and simply that we can readily 

 believe that he would have illustrated the laws of chemical 

 combination with great beauty had he seen the great value of 

 his ideas. There is no obscurity in his language ; there is no 



