62 Royal Society. 



ness and peculiarity, met with but little attention ; but they were 

 discussed and supported by Drs. Thomson and Wollaston, and the 

 scale of chemical equivalents of the latter gentleman separates the 

 practical part of the doctrine from the atomic or hypothetical part, 

 and is worthy of the celebrated author. Gay-Lussac, Berzelius, 

 Prout, and other chemists, have added to the evidence in favour of 

 the essential part of Mr. Dalton's doctrine ; and for the last ten 

 years it has acquired, almost every month, additional weight and 

 solidity. 



The President begged to be understood, that it was the funda- 

 mental principle that he was contending for, and not Mr. Dalton's 

 particular statement of the nature of bodies, and the numbers re- 

 presenting them, given in Mr. Dalton's New System of Chemical 

 Philosophy. In this, he said, as a first sketch, many of the opinions 

 are erroneous, and the results incorrect, and they are given with 

 much more precision in later authors. It is in the nature of physical 

 science that its methods offer only approximations to truth, and 

 the first and most glorious inventors were often left behind by very 

 inferior minds in the minutiae of manipulation, and their errors 

 enabled others to discover truth. 



Mr. Dalton's permanent reputation, continued the President, 

 will rest upon his having discovered a simple principle universally 

 applicable to the facts of chemistry, in fixing the proportions in 

 which bodies combine, and laying the foundation for future labours 

 respecting the sublime and transcendental part of the science of 

 corpuscular motion. His merits in this respect resemble those of 

 Kepler in Astronomy. The causes of chemical change are as yet 

 unknown, and the laws by which they are governed ; but in their 

 connection with electrical and magnetic phaenomena, there is a 

 gleam of light pointing to a new dawn in science. And may we 

 not hope, said the President, that in another century. Chemistry 

 having, as it were, passed under the dominion of the mathematical 

 sciences, may find some happy genius, similar in intellectual power 

 to the highest and immortal ornament of this Society, capable of 

 unfolding its wonderful and mysterious laws. I trust, said the Pre- 

 sident, you will allow the justice of the decision of your council, 

 which has claimed for our countryman the first testimony of Roj'al 

 benevolence. There is, he said, another motive which influenced 

 them, and which, I am sure, will command your sympathy. 

 Mr. Dalton has been labouring for more than a quarter of a century 

 with the most disinterested views. With the greatest modesty and 

 simplicity of character, he has remained in the obscurity of the 

 country, neither asking for approbation nor offering himself as an 

 object of applause. He has but lately become a Fellow of this So- 

 ciety; and the only communication he has given to you is one, com- 

 pared with his other works, of comparatively small interest. Their 

 feeling, therefore, on the subject is perfectly pure. I am sure he 

 will be gratified by this mark of your approbation of his long and 

 painful labours. It will give a lustre to his character which it fully 

 deserves. It will anticipate that opinion which posterity must form 

 of his discoveries, and it may make his example more exciting to 



others 



