Reviews. 163 



a truer knowledge of the various gradations through which tho 

 creation of tertiary forms have proceeded from the close of the 

 cretaceous epoch down to its most recent deposits ; and while, on 

 the one hand, we urge Prof. Beyrich to advance in his great work 

 as rapidly as circumstances will allow him, we must also express 

 a hope that he will meet with such encouragement from British 

 Palaeontologists, as will prove to him that his labours are fully 

 appreciated in the country of a Lyell and a Forbes. 



Memoirs of the Life and Scientific Researches of John Dal- 

 ton, Hon. D.C.L., Oxford, &c. By William Charles 

 Henry, M.D., F.H.S. Printed for the Cavendish Society, 

 1854. 



We have now the satisfaction of welcoming a work on Dalton, 

 which leaves us nothing to desire, so far as regards his personal 

 history or his scientific labours. His history was eventless, his 

 nature unimpassioned, his intellect clear and self-reliant, and his 

 perseverance inexhaustible. By many and slow steps he won his 

 way to reputation, and what to so modest a philosopher seemed 

 w r ealth, was added to fame. 



Born in 1766 in Cumberland, the son of a yeoman, whose small 

 copyhold afforded no patrimony for a younger brother, Dalton 

 shared in the labours of his father's farm during the summer 

 months, and in addition commenced at the precocious age of 

 twelve, to teach a school in his native village. When fifteen years 

 old, he removed to Kendal, and along with his elder brother 

 Jonathan, conducted a seminary for children of members of the 

 Society of Friends, among whom the Daltons had been numbered 

 for three generations. 



In the humble office of schoolmaster, he continued at Kendal 

 for eight years, devoting his leisure to the study of mathematics, 

 natural philosophy, chemistry, and the languages, in the prosecu- 

 tion of which he was encouraged and assisted by Mr Gough, a 

 blind gentleman of remarkable acquirements, who set him the ex- 

 ample of keeping a meteorological register. For this the continu- 

 ally changing aspects of such a district as that around Kendal, 

 w T ith its hills and dales, and sheets of water, presented peculiar 

 facilities, and Dalton soon became an enthusiastic meteorologist, 

 and continued one to the last. Bound meteorology, indeed, all 

 his researches naturally grouped themselves, and it was originally 

 to solve important problems in the science, which he had more or 

 less cultivated for twenty years among his native hills, that he 

 entered upon those enquiries into the laws of Heat, the Constitu- 



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