Wednesday.
My Dear Francis,
I send you Feilitsch.2 I am much obliged for the trouble you have taken with the certificate3 – One word in your last letter I must take exception to, and that is the word ‘prevail’. – I would not prevail on any body. I would sooner wait for 7 years4 and gain the matter on the grounds of having worked up to it than accept it tomorrow through interest. Though I talk thus I have not the shadow of a doubt that you think as I do on the matter and that you will act accordingly. I should be sorry indeed if Mr Sylvester thought the accident alluded could have altered my feelings towards him – I shall not soon forget the kind promptitude with which he responded to my request.5
I will think of a report6 – It struck me yesterday when looking over Poggendorff that the paper of Lamont No 12. page 572 ought to be given fully in the Magazine7 – The periodic law which he establishes is very remarkable and every thing bearing on this subject will be read with interest.
The little article from Ragona Scina page 590 might also appear.8
If you say ‘yes’ to Lamonts paper let me know is it not possible to print the numbers in the tables without copying them. This would reduce the translation to a trifling matter.
Tomorrow morning I shall begin to throw Kohlrausch9 into a readable form and I shall probably have it ready by the 10th of next month.
Sincerely yours | Tyndall –
Suppose I want to sow a quantity of Misletoe can you tell me how I am to manage it?10
StBPL T&F, Authors’ letters
[18 February 1852]: the allusions to Sylvester, the RS certificate and Feilitsch place this letter in February, some days after letters 0600 and 0602 (7 February and mid-February). Given that Tyndall had hoped to have Feilitzsch done by 16 February (0600), Wednesday 18 February seems more likely than 25 February. Also, the summary of Feilitzsch, enclosed in the letter, was published in the March issue of Phil. Mag. which makes 25 February (received 26th in London) unlikely, although possible.
Feilitsch: summary of a pamphlet by Feilitzsch (cited letter 0599, n. 6) which was published as ‘Optical Investigations occasioned by the Total Eclipse of the Sun on the 28th of July 1851. By Dr. v. FEILITZSCH. Greifswald, 1852: Th. Kunike’ under ‘Notices respecting New Books’, Phil. Mag., 3:17 (March 1852), pp. 232–3.
the certificate: the certificate for Tyndall’s election to the RS. Francis (and Sabine) had advised Tyndall and assisted with the process of getting signatures (see letter 0600).
wait for seven years: biblical allusion to the patriarch Jacob, who served Laban seven years to gain his daughter Rachel as wife (Genesis 29:15–28).
I should be sorry ... my request: Sylvester, who had agreed to be one of the signatories from ‘personal knowledge’ of Tyndall, had lost the first copy of the certificate.
a report: a topic for one of his ‘Reports on the Progress of the Physical Sciences’.
the paper of Lamont ... in the Magazine: Johann von Lamont, ‘Ueber die zehnjährige Periode, welche sich in der Grösse der täglichen Bewegung der Magnetnadel darstellt’, Poggend. Annal., 84:12 (1851), pp. 572–82; translation published as Lamont, ‘On the Ten-year Period which exhibits itself in the Diurnal Motion of the Magnetic Needle’, Phil. Mag., 3:20 (June 1852), pp. 428–35.
the little article ... also appear: Dominico Ragona-Scinà, ‘Ueber die Longitudinallinien des Sonnenspectrums. Schreiben an Hrn. Prof. Dove’, Poggend. Annal., 84:12 (1851), pp. 590–2; translation published as Ragona-Scinà, ‘On the Longitudinal Lines of the Solar System. From a Letter to Professor Dove’, Phil. Mag., 3:19 (May 1852), pp. 347–9.
Kohlrausch: what Tyndall intended is unclear, but he made three papers by Kohlrausch the basis of his next ‘Report’ (n. 6 above): ‘Die elektromotorische Kraft ist der elektroskopischen Spannung an den Polen der geöffneten Kette proportional’, Poggend. Annal., 75:10 (1848), pp. 220–8; ‘Die elektroskopischen Eigenschaften der geschlossenen galvanischen Kette’, ibid, 78:9 (1849), pp. 1–21; and ‘Versuch zur numerischen Bestimmung der Stellung einiger Metalle in der Spannungsreihe’, ibid, 82:1 (1852), pp. 1–18. Tyndall’s discussion was published as ‘Reports on the Progress of the Physical Sciences’, Phil. Mag., 3:19 (May 1852), pp. 321–30. He gave the title ‘On the Electroscopic Properties of the Voltaic Current; being an experimental verification of the Theory of Ohm’ to Kohlrausch’s three papers.
Suppose ... manage it?: Tyndall had previously asked Francis how mistletoe is propagated (letter 0599).
Please cite as “Tyndall0603,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 29 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0603