[4] The translation is taken from Thomson's "History of Chemistry." [5] Nevertheless, in other places Lavoisier most readily acknowledges the merits of Priestley. [6] A similar method of reasoning was employed so far back as the tenth century: thus, in an Anglo-Saxon "Manual of Astronomy" we read, "There is no corporeal thing which has not in it the four elements, that is, air and fire, earth and water.... Take a stick and rub it on something, it becomes hot directly with the fire which lurks in it; burn one end, then goeth the moisture out at the other end with the smoke." CHAPTER III. ESTABLISHMENT OF GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF CHEMICAL SCIENCE--PERIOD OF DALTON. _John Dalton_, 1766-1844. The progress of chemical knowledge became so rapid in the early years of the present century, that although I have in this chapter called the time immediately succeeding that of Lavoisier "the period of John Dalton," and although I shall attempt to describe the advances made by this philosopher without considering those of his contemporaries Davy and Berzelius, yet I must insist on the facts that this arrangement is made purely for the sake of convenience, and that many of the discoveries of Davy, Berzelius and others came in order of time before, or followed close upon the publication of Dalton's atomic theory. Nevertheless, as the work of these men belongs in its essence to the modern period, and as the promulgation of the atomic theory by Dalton marks the beginning of this period, it seems better that we should have a clear conception of what was done by this chemist before proceeding to consider the advances made by his contemporaries and successors. * * * * * JOHN DALTON, the second of three children of Joseph and Deborah Dalton, was born at Eaglesfield, a village near Cockermouth, in Cumberland, on the 5th of September 1766. One of the first meeting-houses established by the Society of Friends is to be found in Eaglesfield. The Dalton family had been settled for several generations on a small copyhold estate in this village. The first of them to join the Friends was the grandfather of John Dalton; his descendants remained faithful adherents of this society. Dalton attended the village schools of Eaglesfield and the neighbourhood until he was eleven years old, by which time, in addition to learning reading, writing and arithmetic, he had "gone through a course of mensuration, surveying, navigation, etc." At the age of ten his taste for measurements and calculations began to be remarked by those around him; this taste was encouraged by Mr. Robinson, a relative of Dalton, who recognizing the indomitable perseverance of the boy appears to have taken some care about this time in directing his mathematical studies.