John Dalton: Encyclopedia II - John Dalton - Death and legacy

John Dalton - Death and legacy

Dalton died in Manchester in 1844 of paralysis. The first attack he suffered in 1837, and a second in 1838 left him much enfeebled, both physically and mentally, though he remained able to make experiments. In May 1844 he had another stroke; on July 26 he recorded with trembling hand his last meteorological observation, and on the 27th he fell from his bed and was found lifeless by his attendant. A bust of him, by Chantrey, was publicly subscribed for him and placed in the entrance hall of the Manchester Royal Institution.

Dalton had requested that his eyes be examined after his death, in an attempt to discover the cause of his colour-blindness; he had hypothesised that his aqueous humour might be coloured blue. Postmortem examination showed that the humours of the eye were perfectly normal. However, an eye was preserved at the Royal Institution, and a 1990s study on DNA extracted from the eye showed that he had lacked the pigment that gives sensitivity to green; the classic condition known as a deuteranope.

In honor of his work with ratios and chemicals that led to the idea of atoms and atomic weights, many chemists and biochemists use the (as of yet unofficial) unit Dalton (abbreviated Da) to denote one atomic mass unit, or 1/12 the weight of a neutral atom of Carbon-12.

In his book The 100, Michael H. Hart ranks Dalton as the 32nd most influential person in history.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Death and legacy", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki