64 MEMOIR OF DR. DALTON, AND 



A writer in the Quarterly Review, Vol. XC VI., who had 

 heard him lecture, gives him an unfavourable manner, 

 saying " his voice was harsh, indistinct, and unemphatical, 

 and he was singularly wanting in the language and power of 

 illustration, needful to a lecturer on these high matters of 

 philosophy, and by which Davy and Faraday have given 

 such lustre to their discoveries. Among other instances of 

 his odd appropriation of epithets, we recollect that in treating 

 of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, &c., those great elements 

 which pervade all nature, he generally spoke of them as 

 ^ these articles,' describing their qualities with far less earnest- 

 ness than a London linen draper would shew in commending 

 the very different articles which lie on his shelves." 



As to his style of writing, it is before us to judge. These 

 letters shew nothing crabbed. The specimens of scientific 

 writing given are equally free from such blame ; and although 

 there are different styles in his own works, I consider that 

 generally his scientific writing is agreeable to read, nor is it by 

 any means more " dry" than the average scientific memoirs. 



Still we must consider that his appearance or manner was 

 much against him in the eyes of some persons, the evidence 

 being so strong, but the following letter will show that he 

 was not of a repulsive cast of mind. These letters, from 

 which I quote, were written home to Mr. Johns for him- 

 self and the family to read, as may be supposed, and shew, 

 instead of a repulsive, an exceedingly amiable disposition. 

 He was lecturing at Birmingham, and he writes: — 



March 17th, 1825. 



" We left the Bridgewater Arms, three middle sized and 

 middle aged gentlemen in a small coach; there was room 

 for a thin lady opposite my left hand friend, and I was 

 beginning to think he might have the advantage of me in 

 two respects. We drove down to the Palace Inn, and there 

 I saw a corpulent old gentleman set off towards us much in 

 the shape of a sack of malt ; he came up in as straight a line 



