Friday,
My dear Francis.
I have adopted your plan for the first time and got a boy to write for me.2 I hope the printer will be able to manage it – I have gone over every paper3 carefully and made all necessary corrections – It is I think perfectly legible although possessing a harum scarum appearance. Were Helmholz never to do anything else his name will be remembered in connexion with these two papers.4
as ever yours | J Tyndall
I will now turn my thoughts on a paper for the Memoirs – Thanks for Huxley’s letter5 My ‘Pluck’ has not sunk the fraction of a degree – I will soon return the letter. I fear he stands a perilous chance of not being found among the ‘private favorites’ at the last day!
RDS 27/19
[mid-November 1852]: date is quite uncertain. Allusions to translations of Helmholtz papers (which were published in December) support a mid-November date, as does the reference to Tyndall’s ‘Pluck’ (n. 5). Possible Fridays are 5, 12, 19, or 26 November.
boy to write for me: not identified, presumably a pupil at Queenwood. The boy had perhaps helped Tyndall make fair copies of his draft translations; their combined work could have given the translations a ‘harum scarum’ appearance.
every paper: probably the papers for inclusion in the December number of the Phil. Mag.
these two papers: although Helmholtz would forever be known for his ‘On the Conservation of Force’ published in the Scientific Memoirs, Tyndall is here likely referring to the two Helmholtz papers for the Phil. Mag. (cited letter 0673, n. 15). Tyndall referred to these as the ‘first’ and ‘second’ papers of Helmholtz in subsequent letters.
Huxley’s letter: letter missing, but the allusions to Tyndall’s ‘Pluck’ and to Huxley’s ‘perilous chance’ of not being ‘among the private favorites’ suggest it dealt with Huxley’s and Tyndall’s unsuccessful bids for employment.
Please cite as “Tyndall0688,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on