sons.

quickly fitted on an emergency into the upper | his lamp going out in the dense smoke. On ladder, and increases the height to 50 feet. the third trial it remained in, and enabled

The intrepidity of the conductors of these him to search the place. I called out loud, machines is quite astonishing. Familiarity be says in bis report, and was answered by a with danger begets a coolness which enables kind of stiiled cry. I rushed across the landthem to place themselves in positions which ing to the back room, and encountered a would prove destructive to unpractised per- man, who groaned out, “O save my wife !".

As in most cases they are the promi- | I groped about, and laid hold of a female, dent actors in a drama witnessed by a whole who fell with me, clasping two children in street full of excited spectators, they are per- her arms. I took them up, and brought them haps tempted by the cheers to risk themselves to the escape, guiding the man to follow me, in a manner they would little dream of doing and placed them all safely in the canvas, from under other circumstances. In addition to whence they reached the ground without any such a stimulus they are rewarded with a injury; and, finally, I came down myselt

, silver medal, and with sums of money, for any quite exhausted. • We thougbt,' said a byextraordinary act of gallantry. Every in. stander, when he jumped into the second stance of a daring rescue is entered in the floor window, that we should not see him Society's books, from which we have ex- again alive ; and I cannot tell you how he tracted a few examples, to show what enter- was cheered when he appeared with the prising fellows they are. At a fire which woman and her two children.' broke out in November, 1844, in a house in We shall content ourselves by quoting one Hatton-garden, Conductor Sunshine, on his more exploit from the Reports of the Society, arrival, found the following state of things. the hero of which was conductor Wood, who On the second floor a inan was sitting on the received a testimonial on vellum for the folsill of one of the windows (there were four lowing service at a fire in Colchester Street, windows abreast), and on the third floor a Whitechapel, on the 29th of April, 1854:inan was hanging by his hands to the win. dow-sill at the other extremity of the house

On his arrival the fire was raging throughout front. After having rescued the man on the the back of the house, and smoke issuing from second floor, he did not dare to raise his third- every window; upon entering the first-floor room, floor ladder, for fear of hitting the hanging sons almost insensible from the excessive heat:

part of which was on fire, he discovered five per. man's hands, and causing him to fall; ac- he immediately descended the ladder with a woman cordingly, he stood upon the top rung of the un his shoulders

, and holding a child by its night

on second-floor ladder, and by so doing could clothes in his mouth; again ascended, re-entered just touch with his upstrained arms the poor the room, and having enabled the father to escape, fellow's depending feet. In this position, had scarcely descended, with a child under each having himself but a precarious hold of the arm, when the whole building became envelopod window-frame beneath, his only footing being

in flames, rendering it impossible to attempt a

rescue of the remainder of the unfortunate in. the topmost rung, he called to the man to mates.' drop when he told him, and discovered from his silence that he was deaf and dumb. Upon The rewards of the Society are not always being tapped upon the foot, however, he let won by their own men. William Trafford, go, and the conductor managed, incredible as police constable 344, for instance, had one of it may appear, to slip him down between the Society's medals presented to him, for himself and the wall on to the top of the allowing two persons to drop upon him from ladder, and brought bim safely to the ground. the top windows of a house in College Street, Iu the next case, Conductor Chapman was Camden-town, and thereby enabling them to the hero of the scene, although the indomi-escape without material injury.' Nothing is table Sunshine was present. Having crossed said as to the damage done to poor Trafford the roofs of two adjoining out-buildings, by this act of self-devotion. Chapman managed to place his ladder against The real working value of the fire-escapes the second back floor of the house on fire. may be judged from the fact that, during the Having rescued a lady, he was obliged to re- twenty years they have been on duty, they trace his steps over the roofs, as the fire was have attended no less than 2041 fires, and coming through the tiling. He could only rescued 214 human beings from destruction. cross by making a bridge of the short ladder; To make this excellent scheme complete, only and scarcely had they cleared the premises thirteen stations have now to be established, when it fell in with a tremendous crash. at a first cost of about eighty pounds each ;

On another occasion this intrepid man hav- the charitable could not give their money in ing made an entrance into the second-floor a more worthy cause than in furnishing these window of a house in Tottenham-court-road, districts, in which many thousands of inhabithe was obliged to retreat twice, by reason of ants are still exposed to the most horrible of

Year.

Fires attended.

Lives saved.

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all deaths. To show that the usefulness of best means of exit from the house both at the the Society has progressed with the number top and bottom. of their escapes, we need only adduce the

2. On the first alarm reflect before you act. evidence of the following table, made up to the If in bed at the time wrap yourself in a blanket

, 25th of March of each year.

or bedside carpet; open no more doors or windows than are absolutely necessary, and shut every door after you.

3. There is always from eight to twelve inches Number of Stations.

of pure air close to the ground: if you cannot therefore walk upright through the smoke, drop

on your hands and knees, and thus progress. A 1845 8 increased to 11 116

Tretted silk handkerchief, a piece of flannel, or a 1846 11

15 96 7

worsted stocking drawn over the face permits 1847 15

21 139 11

breathing, and, to a great extent, excludes the 1848 21

25 197 17

smoke. 1849 25 26 223 31

4. If you can neither make your way upwards 1850 26 28 198 10

nor downwards, get into a front room: if there 1851 28

30 226 36

is a family, see that they are all collected here, 1852 30

34 253 25

and keep the door closed as much as possible, for 1853 34

40 265 46 remember that smoke always follows a draughty 1854 40

40 328 28

and fire always rushes after smoke. Two since added.

5. On no account throw yourself, or allow others to throw themselves, from the window.

If no assistance is at hand, and you are in extreThe fire-escapes, in addition to their own mity, tie the shoots together, and having fastened particular duty, are also of the greatest service one end to some heavy piece of furniture, let to the firemen of the Brigade, as, by the use

down the women and children one by one, by of their ladders, they are enabled to ascend to tying the end of the line of sheets round the ang window of a house, and to direct the jet that is over, the door, rather than through one

waist and lowering them through the window, directly upon the burning mass, instead of that is over the area. You can easily let yourself throwing it wild,-a matter of the greatest down when the helpless are saved. importance in extinguishing a fire: for unless 6. If a woman's clothes should catch fire, let you play upon the burning material, and thus her instantly roll herself over and over on the cut off the flame at its root, you only uselessly ground; if a man be present, let him throw her deluge the building with water, which is, we

down and do the like, and then wrap her in a believe, in many cases quite as destructive to rug, coat, or the first woollen thing that is at

hand. stock and furniture as the fire it is intended

7. Bystanders, the instant they see å fire, to extinguish.

should run for the fire-escape, or to the police Much may be done by the inmates to help station if that is nearer, where a jumping-sheet' themselves when a house is on fire, in case is always to be found. neither the engine nor the escape should arrive in time to assist them. Mr. Braidwood,

Dancers and those that are accustomed to in his little work on the method of proceed- wear light muslins and other inflammable ing at fires, advises his readers to rehearse to articles of clothing, when they are likely to themselves his recommendations, otherwise come in contact with the gas, would do well when the danger comes they are thrown, to remember, that by steeping them in a soaccording to his experience, into a state of lution of alum they would vot be liable to temporary derangement, and seem to be actu- catch fire. If the rule were enforced at the ated only by a desire of muscular movement,' atres, we might avoid any possible recurrence throwing chairs and tables from the tops of of such a catastrophe as happened at Drury houses that are scarcely on fire, and, to wind Lane in 1844, when poor Clara Webster was up the absurdity, he says, 'on one occasion I so burnt before the eyes of the audience, that saw crockery-ware thrown from a window on she died in a few days. the third floor.'

During the twenty-one years that the BriThe means to be adopted to prevent the gade has been in existence the firemen have fames spreading, resolve themselves into been called out needlessly no less than 1695 taking care not to open doors or windows, times, often indeed mischievously; for there which create a draught. The same rule are some idle people who think it amusing should be observed by those outside; no to send the mon and engines miles away to door or glass should be smashed in before imaginary fires. In most cases, however, the means are at hand to put out the fire. these false alarms have originated in the

over anxiety of persons, who have hastened Directions for aiding persons to escape from pre- to the station for assistance, deceived by mises on fire.

Jights which they fancied to be of a suspi1. Be careful to acquaint yourself with the cious character. Nature herself now and

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then gives a false alarm, and puts the Brigade , Art. H.-1. Memoirs of the Life and Sciento infinite trouble by her vagaries. Not only tific Researches of John Dalton, Hon. D. the men at one station, but nearly half of the C. L. Oxford, LL.D. Edinburgh, F.R.S., entire force, were employed in November, Foreign Associate of the Academy of 1835, from 11 P.M. to 6 A.M. on the succeed- Sciences, Paris, &c. By William Charles ing morning, in running after the aurora bo- Henry, M.D., F.R.S. 8vo. London, 1854. realis. Some of the zen engines out on 2. An Introduction to the Atomic Theory. that occasion reached as far as Kilburn and By Charles Daubeny, M.D., F.R.S. &c., Hampstead in search of those evanescent Professor of Chemistry and of Botany in lights, which exactly simulated extensive the University of Oxford. 2nd Edition. fires. In the succeeding year the red rays of Oxford. 1851. the rising sun took in some credulous members of the Brigade, and led them with their We place these volumes in conjunction-the engines full swing along the Commercial and first a biography, the second an essay on one Mile-End Roads. Whilst on this false scent of the highest topics of natural science-be. they came upon a real fire, which, although cause the fame of Dalton mainly rests on the inferior to great Sol himself in grandeur, was discoveries by which he defined and illustrated far more remunerative, as the God of Morn- that theory which forms the subject of Dr. ing knows nothing about rewards to first, Daubeny's work. A dedication of this second second, and third engines.

edition to the

meinory

of Dalton—then The most remarkable and universal false recently deceased—justly and very eloquently alarm caused by the play of the Northern describes those researches in atomic chemistry, lights was in the autumn of this same year, which, while wonderfully enlarging the when the whole north-eastern horizon seemned domains of the science, and giving exactitude to possessed by an angry conflagration, from all its conclusions, have led to new and more which huge clouds of smoke appeared to roll profound views of the great laws by which away. On this occasion the public, as well waiter is governed in the mutual actions and as the firemen, were deceived: crowds poured combinations of its ultimate component parts. forth from the West-end on foot and in car- Here, on this wide field of atomical theory, riages to see what they imagined to be a grand the bold speculations of ancient philosophy effect of the devouring element;' and thir- had anticipated, as we shall presently see

, teen engines turned out with the full impres- some of the results, now better fixed by actual sion that a whole suburb of the metropolis experiment and the consummate refineinents of was in flames.

modern analysis. Dalton had no knowledge The alarms from chimneys on fire have of these elder hypotheses, nor even a full ancalled the engines out no less than 1982 ticipation of all that his doctrine was to bring times during the years the Brigade has been forth in the future. But it was he who in established, or on an average twice eek. effect sowed the seeds for this great harvest ; Let us hope that, as we are setting about and though others had recently trodden on clearing the atmosphere by Act of Parliament, the same ground, and to the very briuk of accidents of this kind will gradually cease the discovery, it was he who first fully indiWe may now watch with satisfaction many a cated the principle and method of research, tall shaft, as we steam down the river, that and the true import and value of the facts seems to stand idle in the air ; the great roll- derived from it. ing clouds of smoke that used to obscure the The name of Dalton must therefore enter sky on the southern bank of the Thames are into every history of the atomical theory; no longer seen, and the air is growing appre- and we may be excused for dwelling upon ciably purer. It is evident that our manufac- some particulars of the life of this remarkable turers, where they have not become alive to person, as afforded us in the volume of Dr. the saving it would effect, have been coerced IIenry, aided by our own personal recollecby the vigorous manner in which the Home tions. Dr. Henry was peculiarly fitted for his Secretary has put the law in force against task. He inberited from his father a strong these black offenders; and we may hope that personal attachment to Dalton, whose reciproDr. Arnott's smoke-consuming grate, or some cal regard was shown by his bequest to Dr. modification of it, will ere long find its way Henry of his papers and all his philosophical into every house to complete the work.

. apparatus. Thoroughly versed in modern

chemistry himself, and especially familiar from study in the German laboratories, with those researches which have so greatly enlarged, while in some parts modifying, the original discovery of Dalton, he comes well prepared to narrate the progress and present state of

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this great inquiry. He is everywhere perfectly character come out curiously in this part of candid in his estimate of persons and things, his career, às delineated by the recollections where points of controversy are concerned. of one or two persons yet living, who were And further

, his volume is very agreeably his scholars at Kendal." Apart indeed from written, and will please all those who, with such information, we could readily have consome knowledge of natural science, can find jectured that he must have made a very ininterest in the simple memorial of an earnest different school-master. His own early selfinvestigator of its truths.

acquired knowledge did not give him the Apart indeed from his scientific career, it power of instilling the same into others of would be difficult to conceive a life more calm his age. At no period had he any command and uneventful than that of Dalton. What of language or facility of explanation. Equally Cuvier said of Cavendish is equally true of was he unfitted to comprehend those mental him— Il n'y a dans son histoire d'autres inci- diversities of temper as well as intellect, which dens que des découvertes. Born in a humble show themselves in the very dawn of life. position, from which he only slowly emerged Whether that uniformity of plan, which is in living successively in two provincial towns, some sort inevitable in the gathering together where few at that time could understand or of youth in schools and colleges, be not on appreciate his labours—working always alone, the whole better in result than the teaching with no other excitement than the love of phy- upon vague views of individual character, is sical truth-wanting little, and undisturbed a question we cannot here discuss. It is by the passions or even by the more common enough to say that Dalton, as a schoolmaster, emotions of social I existence-his course was could have had but one method, and that one of patient study, unbroken by any of the founded on his own peculiar temperament sterner incidents of life. He was a Quaker and habits. by birth, and maintained to the end the dress At the Kendal school, where there were and

many of the usages of the sect. But his some sixty boys and girls, educated at from character and habits depended much less on half-a-guinea to fifteen shillings a quarter, he this than on his individual temperament, and was associated, while master, with his brother those intellectual peculiarities of which we Jonathan ; a hard an severe man by pature. shall have afterwards to speak.

The surviving pupils describe John as of # John Dalton was born at Eaglesfield, a vil- gentle temper; but nevertheless cold, abstractlage near Cockermouth, in 1766. The Dal- ed, and uncouth in his ways. The school, at tons were of the class of small proprietors, best, seems never to have been very popular formerly called statesmen,-a name that still under the management of these young lingers, we believe, in the northern parts of brothers. England. The father of John appears to have While residing at Kendal John Dalton enbeen a weaver, as well as yeoman; but of gaged himself in frequent contributions to the slender means in both capacities. He had two Gentlemen's and Ladies' Diaries;' two perisons and a daughter. John, the second son, odical works which, at that time of scanty was placed at the village schools at Eaglesfield literature in the country parts of Enaland, and in the neighbourhood; but derived much earued repute and circulation by their prize more aid from the talents with which he was questions in mathematics and general phiborn, than from any help which schools could losophy. When Westmoreland was some give. He speedily nurtured his own faculties days' journey from London, instead of the into activity; and the slight memorials of his eight hours of present travel, such periodicals, youth are the miniature of the man in later with a weekly newspaper circulated among life. This miniature becomes more exact as neighbours, were probably treasured more we follow him forward to his early positions than the cumbrous superfinity of publications in the world ; first, as a schoolmaster himself now spread throughout every corner of the at Eaglesfield, when only twelve years old kingdom. In 1787, we find that Dalton, be

, next, as assistant and principal successively, ing then twenty-one, correctly solved thirteen at a boarding school at Kendal. Simple as out of fifteen mathematical questions in these were, and still are, the functions of a village Diaries, and in 1790 gained the highest prize schoolmaster, it is extraordinary that a boy of for his masterly solution of the prize question.' twelve years should be able to fulfil them; He meddled a little also with the moral queand that, after a year of intermediate labour ries propounded in these works; and bis anin husbandry, he should be called, when yet swers, though somewhat formal and vapid, are but fifteen, to the larger duties of the Kendal at least as good as the questions deserve. school. That inborn faculty of silent self- Dalton began his career of physical research labour, and patient study, which remained while at Kendal

, directing it chiefly to Metewith bim through life, can alone explain this. orology-a subject which engaged much of

Some of the moral peculiarities of Dalton's his attention through life. The first entry in

his Meteorological Journal is of March 24, | tics, he became familiar also with every 1787, and records a remarkable Aurora Bore- branch of natural pbilosophy, and had so alis on the evening of that day. Perchance from cultivated bis remaining senses, that he could this very cause the phenomenon of the aurora tell by touch, smell, or taste, almost every (even now imperfectly explained) continued plant within twenty miles of his native place: ever after to be a favourite topic with him. Dalton's friendship for him continued He made in the beginning his own barometer throughout the whole of Mr. Gough's long and thermometer; and used as an hygrometer life. some six yards of whipcord, suspended from It was in the same year, 1793, that Dalton a nail and stretched by a weight, with a scale made his second and final change of residence, attached to it. This rudeness of his instru- by accepting the place of mathematical tutor ments was not limited to early life. Even in at a College of Protestant Dissenters lately the experiments which led to his great dis- established in Manchester. Though his con. coveries, bis apparatus was grievously defi- nexions with the College ceased after six cient in all those refinements which chemistry years, he remained at Manchester during the now requires and has obtained; and his labo- rest of his life, and in the same house for the ratory, which we once visited, might well, in last thirty years of that time; making an inits slovenly arrangements, provoke a smile come, which sufficed for his few and simple from the modern adept in analysis. There wants, by giving lessons to pupils, or occawas a sort of obstinacy in Dalton's mind on sional lectures, both at a very low rate of rethis subject; derived in part from the inde- muneration. pendence of bis own early labours-in part We suppose that few men of tolerable also from an original pertinacity of bis nature. education have passed through life without But some compensation was found for this putting together some lines, which either defect in his clear perception of the objects were poetry, or were believed by themselves sought for, and in that patient repetition of to be such ? Among the exceptions to the experiments and observations wbich reconciles rule we should fully have expected Dalton to discordant results, and gives certainty to the be one. But it was otherwise.

His biograconclusions obtained. The Method of Ave- pher gives us, as the best among other speci

| rages, even where pot recognised as such, in- mens, ten or twelve stinzas, addressed to an volves a principle prolific of truth; and Æolian lyre; and written in 1796, at a time Dalton largely availed himself of it in his when his feelings seem to have been somescientific labours.

what excited by the beauty and talents of a In May, 1792, he first visited London, of young Quaker lady, whose family he occawhich he says in a letter to his brother, 'It is sionally visited at Lancaster. In letters to a most surprising place, and well worth one's his brother, from which extracts are given, he while to see once ; but the inost disagreeable describes these qualities with more warmth place on earth for one of a contemplative turn and in greater detail than we should have ex. to reside in constantly. A longer knowledge pected; yet still with a certain philosophical might, perhaps, have told him that a man method and a strong leaning to the tabular may be alone in a multitude; and that the form,' which delineates the man almost as greatest works of contemplation as well as of 'well as the lady whom he admires. With repractical activity have emerged from amidst gard to the verses, they surprise us from being the din and bustle of this great metropolis. very much in the Della Crusca style; and as It is a characteristic trait of him, that he oc- poetry we can hardly commend them. Yet cupied bimself while going to the Friends' we give a stanza below, which will not be Meeting House in counting the number of thought deficient either in harmony or feelcarriages he met on the road. This,' he says, ing. In reading it we have a difficulty in re'I executed with tolerable precision, and the cognising either the Quaker or the hard dry number was 104.' Dalton lived, in truth, in mathematician of the Kendal-school.* an atmosphere of numbers; and all his

Whatever was the state of Dalton's feelings thoughts and observations took their colour at this time, result there was none. The ing from this strong propensity of his na- same condition of life continued ; one which ture.

probably made marriage impossible, even had In 1793 he first published his Meteorologi- he not been already wedded to those very cal Observations and Essays, in which he re- different pursuits which gave happiness as cords his obligations to Mr. John Gough of well as honour to his life. It was about this Kendal; that singular man, who, becoming totally blind from small-pox when two years * Again the slowly rising notes assailold, furnished a memorable instance of what

As if some tender maid, unseen, unknown, the intellect can attain, unaided by this one

Sigh’d for neglect. yet tuneful swell’d the gale,

To melt th’upfeeling heart with sorrow's plaingreat sense. Profoundly versed in mathema- tivo moan.

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