ii2 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES CHAP. 



opportunity of indicating my sense of the debt which 

 Manchester owes to that man, and this I was able to 

 do on more than one occasion, notably at the opening 

 of the new buildings of the college by the late Duke 

 of Devonshire. I rejoice to think that during his 

 lifetime he received the greatest honour which Man- 

 chester could give, that of its freedom. 



No sooner had I set foot in Manchester than I was 

 elected a member of the Philosophical Society of that 

 city, the oldest, best-known, and most important of 

 provincial scientific societies. Its hero, of course, 

 was John Dal ton, who served as its president for many 

 years, and scarcely second to him was another great 

 Manchester man, James Prescott Joule, who also, after 

 Dalton's decease, occupied the presidential chair. 

 For many years I served as secretary to the society 

 and spent many pleasant hours in scientific converse, 

 for those meetings brought together all those in the 

 city and neighbourhood who felt interest or took part 

 in the prosecution of science. In later years I had 

 the satisfaction of unearthing a number of Dalton's 

 manuscript laboratory note-books, which had hitherto 

 escaped attention, and where I found some most 

 interesting historical data which, in my opinion, altered 

 the views up to that time prevalent respecting the 

 origin of the atomic theory. These views were 

 published by Dr. Harden and myself in a volume 

 entitled A New View of the Origin of Daltoris 

 Atomic Theory (Macmillan and Co., 1896). 



In due course I also became president of the 

 society from 1882 to 1883, and in recognition of my 

 efforts to elucidate Dalton's work, and also of the 

 services which I had rendered the society, I was, in 

 February, 1900, awarded their first Dalton medal. In 

 acknowledging this honour, I said that the first 



