My dear Tom
Thank you for the Observer.2 It is excellent. Conducted as it is it must be productive of nothing but good to Queenwood. Those translations3 are also a very good idea as they are a certificate that the boys learn what their teachers profess to teach them. The account of the mutual improvement society,4 short as it is opened out a very pleasant view of your condition. On the whole the little paper has given me high gratification.
I sent Haas a semihumourous scrap5 but he has rejected it. Were I in his place I should have rejected yours6 and put in my own.
Side by side with your Observer came to me the notification that the Council of the Royal Society7 had awarded me the medal.8 Hofman9 and myself were competitors (I did not know this) and the Council had great difficulty in deciding I think the best thing I could do would be take a little prussic acid10 and kill myself quietly here while the halo is still around my head. People would then say ‘if he had lived &c.’ – ‘Poor fellow he went off just at the dawning of his day’ I should thus get a hold on posterity no doubt
Yours affectionately | John.
I expect Simpson in a few minutes. I think you ought to come up and see Simpson yourself. You will have time tomorrow? You can come at half-fare.
I think I will go have a cup of tea with him tomorrow evg. as I really am anxious to see your daughter11
Such fellows as you whom I have satisfied so much ought to get up a penny subscription for me | Nicht wahr? Helmholtz ist hübsch12
RI MS JT/1/T/933
RI MS JT/1/HTYP/279
[5 November 1853]: this letter was dated by LT. Her dating is probably accurate, as Tyndall noted his visit with Simpson on 6 November (Journal, JT/2/13b/632). Furthermore, Hirst replied to the contents of this letter the following day (see letter 0819).
the Observer: The Queenwood Observer, a monthly periodical running from 1853 to 1860, produced and edited by students at Queenwood College. This likely refers to Tyndall’s receipt of an article by Hirst that appeared in the October 1853 issue, which Tyndall had been helping him to edit (see letter 0812, n. 1).
Those translations: not identified.
account of the mutual improvement society: proceedings of the Queenwood Mutual Improvement Society’s weekly meetings were frequently published in The Queenwood Observer. The society was, generally speaking, voluntary and devoted to the improvement of knowledge and skills.
a semihumourous scrap: possibly a letter Tyndall wrote to Charles Cumming, one of the boys at Queenwood College (see letter 0819, n. 15).
yours: not identified.
the Council of the Royal Society: the governing body of the Royal Society, composed of elected fellows. At the deciding meeting for the Royal Medals on 3 November there were 13 Council members present: Thomas Bell (1792–1880), James Booth (1806–78), Benjamin Brodie (1783–1862), Samuel Hunter Christie (1784–1865), John Peter Gassiot (1797–1877), Joseph Hooker (1817–1911), Henry Bence Jones (1813–73), George Newport (1803–54), Edward Sabine (1788–1883), William Sharpey (1802–80), William Smyth (1788–1865), William Spence (1782–1860), and Nathaniel Wallich (1785–1854) (Jackson, ‘Tyndall and the Royal Medal’, p. 156).
the medal: see letter 0815, n. 3.
Hofman: misspelling of August Wilhelm Hofmann.
prussic acid: hydrogen cyanide (HCN), a poisonous chemical compound.
your daughter: Tyndall was referring to Anna Martin, who would become Hirst’s wife in December 1854. Hirst often referred to Martin, his future wife, as his daughter (see letter 0825, n. 8), and she called him ‘father’ (see letter 0634, n. 8). In his journal entry for 6 November, Tyndall noted seeing Maxwell Simpson, Mary Simpson, and Anna Martin. He ‘rather liked the latter though she scarcely spoke’ (Journal, JT/2/13b/632). Anna Martin and Mary Simpson (née Martin) were sisters.
Nicht wahr? Helmholtz ist hübsch: German, ‘Is it not so? Helmholz is lovely’.
Please cite as “Tyndall0816,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on