264 MEMOIR OF DR. DALTON, AND 



although not yet a Member of the Royal Society of his 

 own country. 



Productions so numerous as these will account for all 

 the years that Dalton had to spend. We find him still gain- 

 ing his living as professional chemist, lecturer, and teacher of 

 chemistry and mathematics; sometimes giving evidence on 

 subjects connected with the arts, at trials in various courts ; 

 sometimes answering the inquiries of manufacturers. His 

 uncertain position in this respect, suggested to Sir H. Davy 

 that he might probably find it agreeable to undertake the 

 scientific department of an expedition, fitted out by the 

 Admiralty, for investigation in the Polar regions, under Sir 

 John Ross. In 1818, Davy wrote to inquire if he would 

 undertake it, but Dalton excused himself, partly on account 

 of the hardships connected with a journey which, to one ac- 

 customed to a sedentary life, would be found too severe; 

 and partly because he did not wish to interrupt his chemical 

 inquiries. It is almost to be regretted that he did not under- 

 take some such expedition. A new direction would have 

 been given to his investigations; and a mind which had 

 almost expended itself on its own field of view, would have 

 had an ample new field on which new crops would, in all 

 probability, have flourished abundantly. 



About the same time, Mr. Strutt, of Derby, offered him 

 a laboratory and a home at his house, with a salary of 

 four hundred pounds a-year, and perfect freedom to spend 

 his time in any manner he might consider agreeable. This 

 he declined, on account of the loss of independence which he 

 considered it would necessarily involve, although the offer was 

 made on such terms as to free him from all duties whatever. 

 This information I received from Alderman Shuttleworth, of 

 Manchester, through whom the offer was made. But no 

 professorship was offered him, none of the rich endowments 

 of the country benefited Dalton. With a strange apathy 

 these are seldom offered but to those who propose themselves ; 



