Queenwood 27th Aug.
My dear Francis.
I send you my version of the prospectus2 and shall <not> be at all dismayed if you should quietly thrust it in the fire, I am an impertinent devil I know for daring to deviate from Huxley3 – In all probability his is the best of the two. I have simply spoken my own mind and written a thing which I imagine I should like to read myself as a prospectus. I think it due to the old Scientific Memoirs4 to say what I have said in their favour – I can only partially judge as to the translation but the subjects selected in the physical department are most of them classical. Remember however I am not a man of the world and if Huxley thinks me too speculative by all means send me to the devil. A bushel of thanks for the time[-bill] it gives me a day and a half breathing time more than reckoned on – I shall be in London on Monday and shall then squeeze your knuckle bones to powder.5 It will be time enough to set out for Belfast on Tuesday.6 if Huxley has no better company and is willing to travel 2nd Class. I shall be happy to offer myself as his shadow from London to Belfast – I am almost [worn] to [nil] god knows.
Sincerely thine J. Tyndall
You may change [Nov.] if you like. I am ready for anything.7
StBPL T&F, Authors’ letters
27 August [1852]: the letter is dated to 1852 by allusions to Belfast and the prospectus of the Scientific Memoirs. The Belfast meeting of the BAAS was held in early September 1852.
the prospectus: for the new series of Scientific Memoirs. Although the request is missing, letter 0653 and this letter suggest that Francis had asked Tyndall’s advice on both a preface and a prospectus.
deviate from Huxley: Tyndall had suggested that Huxley write the prospectus (letter 0653), when he was concerned he would not have time to do it himself.
the old Scientific Memoirs: that is, the 5 volumes of Scientific Memoirs, Selected from the Transactions of Foreign Academies of science and Learned Societies and from Foreign Journals, edited by Richard Taylor. The new series divided into two parts, representing natural history (edited by Huxley and Henfrey) and natural philosophy (edited by Tyndall and Francis).
squeeze your knuckle bones to powder: firmly shake your hand.
I shall be in London ... on Tuesday: Tyndall left Queenwood on Monday 30 August, left London for Dublin on Tuesday 31 August, and arrived in Belfast on Wednesday 1 September (JT/2/13b/581).
You may change ... anything: this could refer to the first part of the Scientific Memoirs, which Tyndall believed would be published on 1 November (see letter 0669), or to the November issue of the Phil. Mag.
Please cite as “Tyndall0656,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 3 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0656