My Dear Francis,
I am in receipt of Wood’s answers.2 his reading is evidently extensive and his conceptions ingenious – he calls to my mind the case of Walsh in Cork so admirably described by Mr Boole.3 not that he is any thing like so verkehrt4 as Walsh but I cannot help thinking that he is ‘kicking against the pricks’5 – His answers don’t convince me – but more of that anon – I will write to you again on the subject in the course of the week.6 I may be hasty in thus expressing myself and shall be happy to retract if deeper study of the subject shews me my error.
I will translate Wartmanns paper7 this week.
I send you some British Association proofs8 – would you be good enough to hand them to the proper party.
Col. Sabine writes to me as follows.
[…]!9
I hardly know how to reply to this!
I sent off the application regarding Sidney last night.10
I received a short letter from Thomson this morning11 which I shall beg of you to publish in [this months] number.12 It wont occupy more than half a page –
most truly yours Tyndall
StBPL T&F, Authors’ letters
[9 November 1851]: written one day after Tyndall sent the application for Sydney, which was 8 November (see n. 10). This date is consistent with the allusions to other letters (e.g. from Sabine and Thomson, see nn. 9 and 11).
Wood’s answers: Francis had consulted Tyndall about two papers by Woods, and Tyndall suggested (letter 0556) that Francis ask Woods to respond to some objections. Letters from Tyndall to Francis, Francis to Woods, and Woods back to Tyndall via Francis, went forwards and backwards in approximately two weeks. Tyndall’s initial criticisms were expressed in letter 0550, but there is no record of what he sent to Woods.
Walsh ... Boole: John Walsh (1786–1847) was an eccentric mathematician from Cork, whose biography was written by George Boole (1815–64), English mathematician and logician, who was Professor of Mathematics at Queen’s College Cork from 1849.
verkehrt: wrong.
‘kicking against the pricks’: ‘to kick against the pricks’ was a proverb used in Acts 26:14. Tyndall implied that Woods, like Saul the persecutor of early Christians, was bringing trouble to himself.
I will write ... of the week: Six days later Tyndall sent Francis a further question for Woods (letter 0567).
Wartmanns paper: Élie Wartmann, ‘Note sur la polarisation de la chaleur atmosphérique’, Bibliothèque Universelle Archives des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles, 18 (October 1851), pp. 89–95.
I send you ... proofs: possibly the proofs for the abstracts which would appear in the Report of the Ipswich BA meeting. Tyndall was saving postage by sending them via Francis.
[…]!: Tyndall here copied out letter 0559 from Sabine. He copied fairly accurately. Minor changes include: spelling out some of Sabine’s abbreviations, altering capitalisation and, the biggest change, omitting ‘at Toronto’ after ‘professorship’. The exclamation mark, which Tyndall inserted after Sabine’s signature, indicates his pleasure and surprise.
I sent ... last night: see letter 0561.
I received ... this morning: letter 0560.
beg of you to publish … number: Tyndall wanted the confusion created by Thomson’s error (see letter 0560) to be clarified as soon as possible.
Please cite as “Tyndall0563,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on