400 APPENDICES 



Tutor for six years, having to teach mathematics and natural 

 philosophy, he resigned this situation and devoted himself to the 

 prosecution of scientific inquiry, earning his bread by teaching 

 private pupils, and this mode of living he carried out until 

 his death in 1844. So simple were his requirements, and 

 so inexpensive his tastes, that it was only in the last few 

 years of his life that he bought himself six silver spoons, 

 deeming pewter good enough for him. In fact his riches 

 consisted not in the greatness of his means but in the fewness 

 of his wants. His habits are well illustrated by the following 

 anecdote: In the year 1826, when Dalton had achieved a 

 European reputation, a well-known Parisian savant came to 

 Manchester with the express purpose of visiting the illustrious 

 author of the Atomic Theory of Chemistry. Doubtless he 

 expected to find the philosopher well known and appreciated 

 by his fellow-citizens, probably occupying an official dwelling 

 devoted to the prosecution of science, like the noble buildings 

 to which he had been accustomed in France. There he would 

 expect to find the great chemist lecturing to a large and 

 appreciative audience of advanced students. Judge of the 

 Frenchman's surprise when on his arrival in Cottonopolis he 

 discovered the whereabouts of Dalton only after diligent 

 search and inquiry, and found the Manchester philosopher 

 in a small room in a back street engaged in looking over the 

 shoulders of one small boy who was working his " cyphering 

 on a slate ! " " Est-ce que j'ai 1'honneur de m'addresser a 

 Monsieur Dalton ? " said the polite Frenchman, for he could 

 hardly believe his eyes that this was one of the first chemists 

 in Europe, teaching a boy the four first rules of arithmetic. 

 " Yes," said the matter-of-fact Quaker ; " wilt thou sit down 

 whilst I put this lad right about his sums ? " 



But as I have said, whilst teaching these boys, and girls 

 also, his mind was intent upon great problems of science. 

 He was always meditating and experimenting upon the 

 composition of the air, upon the constitution of gases. 

 Thus he lived two lives, one that of the teacher, the 

 other that of an experimental philosopher. By the one he 

 got his daily bread ; the other was to yield that higher 

 prize of an immortal name in science. 



Dalton's mind was a speculative one ; he was characterised 

 by independence of spirit, fearlessness of inquiry, clearness 

 and straightforwardness of vision, indomitable perseverance, 

 and entire unselfish and lifelong devotion to the prosecution 

 of scientific truth for its own sake, and for its own sake alone. 

 " If," said Dalton in later life, " I have succeeded better than 



