36 Britain's Heritage of Science 



he was elected on two occasions as their representative in 

 Parliament. The interest which Newton displayed in 

 University politics illustrates his intellectual vigour, and 

 is inseparable from those qualities to which he owes his 

 commanding position in the history of science. While it is, 

 therefore, useless to speculate whether he was wise to allow 

 his attention to be diverted from his more serious work, 

 it is much to be regretted that his mind should have been 

 disturbed by discussions about priority which affected his 

 nervous system and damaged his health. These discussions 

 were forced upon him, and he would gladly have avoided 

 the bitter controversies with Hooke and, in later years, 

 with Leibnitz. 



No two men could differ more in temperament or outlook 

 than Newton and John Dalton. To Newton the accurate 

 numerical agreement between the results of observation 

 and those of theory was of paramount importance, while 

 in Dalton's experiments, numerical results were mainly used 

 as illustrations of a theory which to him did not admit of 

 any doubt. John Dalton was the second son of a weaver 

 in poor circumstances living in Cumberland. In 1778, 

 when only twelve years old, he started teaching at the 

 Quaker School in Eaglesfield, where he himself had obtained 

 his first instruction. In this he was not successful, and 

 after a brief attempt at earning his living as a farmer, he 

 left his native village In 1781, in order to assist a cousin who 

 kept a school at Kendal. In 1793 he moved to Manchester, 

 where he spent the remainder of his life as a teacher of 

 mathematics and natural philosophy, first in " New College " 

 (which ultimately was transferred to Oxford as " Manchester 

 College "), and later privately. As early as 1787 he began 

 to keep a meteorological diary, which he continued to the 

 time of his death fifty-seven years later. He led the quiet 

 life of a student, interrupted by occasional visits to the 

 Lake District. In 1822 Dalton paid a short visit to Paris; 

 of London he remarked that it was " the most disagreeable 

 place on earth, for one of a contemplative turn, to reside in 

 constantly " In addition to the work which gained him 

 immortality, he foreshadowed several subsequent discoveries, 

 and enunciated the correct law of expansion of gases some 



