Many thanks for the paper1
Dear Dr Tyndall
Today the new managers are elected2 and Mr. Faraday has already told the old ones what he proposes regarding you & Mr. Barlow has written to the president3 Duke of Northd to tell him. So that at our first meeting4 I hope something official will be sent to you. Tho’ I think I told you the absolute appointment cannot take place until next year. Still the arrangement can be made & you can begin duties & Salary. The time when this will be, I think will be left to you but of this I am not sure. I heard from Du Bois5 on Saturday he will come with Helmholtz to Hull6 & will be in England until the middle of Sept I expect. I send you his last paper.7 He is writing his reply to Matteucci in English & will send us proofs very soon.8 An article from you will be better than a review;9 but follow your own course. I am asked to give lectures at the College of Physicians10 next year & possibly I may take this as my subject. At present I am writing out some clinical lectures which are to be published & this takes all my spare time leaving very little for work after my daily patients are ended.
I had a long talk with De la Rue11 about the two Institutions.12 I think to day is the question at the London about selling off. The ballot will be decided against the motion and next week I think you will have an offer from them better than we can give. I expect £300 &c &c. You shall hear as soon as anything is said at the Royal I.
Believe me, | Yours most truly | H. Bence Jones
May 2. 1853
RI MS JT/1/J/49
RI MS JT/1/TYP/680
the paper: a manuscript written by Emil du Bois-Reymond for the Phil. Mag. (see letter 0750, n. 2).
new managers are elected: managers of the RI (see letter 0732, n. 2).
the president: see letter 0713, n. 7.
our first meeting: the first meeting between Faraday and the new managers of the RI is discussed in letter 0756.
Du Bois: Emil du Bois-Reymond.
he will come to … Hull: this is presumably a reference to the BAAS meeting of 1853 in Hull. Tyndall could not attend as he was in Paris at the time.
last paper: not identified.
He is writing … soon: du Bois-Reymond’s reply to Matteucci was published later in May (E. du Bois-Reymond, On Signor C. Matteucci’s Letter to H. Bence Jones M.D., F.R.S. &c. Editor of An Abstract of Dr. du Bois-Reymond’s Researches in Animal Electricity [London: John Churchill, 1853]).
better than a review: this may be in reference to the review of du Bois-Reymond’s experimental researches that Tyndall was considering writing at this time (Journal, 26 April, JT/2/13b/604). It would be published as J. Tyndall, ‘Rise, Progress, and Present Condition of Animal Electricity’, British and Foreign Medico-chirurgical Review 25 (1854), pp. 126–42).
College of Physicians: The Royal College of Physicians.
De la Rue: Warren de la Rue (1815–1889), chemist and astronomer. He was for many years President of the London Institution.
the two Institutions: the RI and the LI.
Please cite as “Tyndall0754,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on