v PROFESSOR AT OWENS COLLEGE 113 



original research which I undertook in coming to 

 Manchester was a revision and an extension of 

 Dalton's well-known laws of the absorption of gases 

 in water. 



The house in George Street, still occupied by the 

 society, is where John Dalton carried on his researches. 

 There, too, are collected together the apparatus of 

 various kinds which he used. They were of the 

 simplest character and almost all made by himself. 

 With these simple means he accomplished great 

 things. He ascertained the laws which affect chemical 

 combination and upon which he founded the atomic 

 theory of chemistry. Upstairs is the old-fashioned 

 "Meeting" room, where Dalton as president used 

 to take the chair at the meetings of the society, 

 and where, when a very prosy communication was 

 being made to the society, he at times would lean 

 over the raised platform, and in a loud sotto voce 

 address the secretaries : " Well, this is a very inter- 

 esting paper for those that take any interest in it." 

 Facing this page is a fine portrait of Dalton when an 

 old man, engraved by Jeans from a Daguerreotype 

 taken about the year 1840. 



At a later date I wrote a popular account of the life 

 and labours of John Dalton for the Century series of 

 Scientific Men published by Cassell and Co., in 1901, 

 called, John Dalton and the Rise of Modern Chemistry. 



During the years immediately following the Japanese 

 revolution many promising students were sent to the 

 universities and colleges in Europe and America to learn 

 scientific method. Several came to Owens College, 

 and I became intimate with those studying chemistry 

 under me. They were one and all extraordinarily per- 

 severing, painstaking men. They had learnt English 

 before coming over, and very soon were able to follow 



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