118 BIOGRAPHIES OF SCIENTIFIC MEN 



" was never remarkable for neatness. . . . His bottles 

 were of every shape, size, and colour, and his apparatus 

 was of the most humble and inexpensive description. He 

 often performed experiments at the cost of a few shillings 

 on which others would spend as many pounds." What 

 wonderful results were obtained with such meagre ap- 

 pliances ! It may be asked whether the laboratories 

 of Lavoisier, Priestley, and Dalton, with their meagre 

 appliances, produced better work than the luxuriously- 

 fitted laboratories of to-day. The question is not easily 

 answered. It must, however, have been simply delightful 

 to have worked under Lavoisier, Priestley, or Dalton, 

 each a genius and pioneer in the early days of modern 

 chemistry. Lavoisier and Dalton were the architects of 

 a new chemistry a chemistry which has stood the test 

 of time, and is of the greatest value to all nations in 

 fact, the " wealth of nations." 



In 1803 Dalton published a paper " On the Absorption 

 of Gases by Water and other Liquids." This memoir had 

 an important bearing on Henry's law discovered in the 

 same year. 



The first account of Dalton's famous atomic theory 

 appeared in Thomson's Chemistry in 1807, he having told 

 Thomson of his experiments and deductions. In 1808 

 Dalton published his New System of Chemical Philosophy, 

 in which the theory of atoms was fully expounded ; and 

 he described experiments directed towards the estimation 



