My dear Tom
I will post the letter to Henry Hill2 this day. I would show it to Bevington but he would assuredly be wanting to have a finger in the pie. I was much pleased with the whole packet. You are a good fellow Tom no doubt in the eyes of the world, or would be so if the world knew all, but in my eyes you are one unprofitable servant for you do no more than you ought to do. I think you ought to be very thankful to be in a position to do so much for certainly you are the privileged individual.3 Tell Tommy Grieve that I will write to him before I go down – and that I hope he will put back his paper4 until I come. Cling to the handles of teapots &c as much as possible to your lectures. To the plumage of birds and so forth – There are combustions to no end & you want to dazzle them – latent heat5 is a little deep but may be made understandable to them.
I have a good deal to say to you but it is not yet time – This medal affair6 has taken an extraordinary turn – am to loose it again – the circumstances are not yet ripe for statement but will be at the end of the week
Your affectionate | John
The scoundrels who trade in those Diplomas7 certainly deserve exposure & ought to get it – If you could make out the University8 it would really be worth while to smash it.
You could make some fine experiments with parabolic mirrors9 but the idea of such things for the Abbotts Ann people10 is preposterous – I will enquire about the price of them and let you know.
RI MS JT/1/T/580
RI MS JT/1/HTYP/286
[21 November 1857]: this is a reply to letter 0833, which Tyndall received on 21 November. This letter was likely written on the same day.
the letter to Henry Hill: a letter Hirst wrote to Hill, who was having financial difficulties (see letter 0833, n. 1).
you are the privileged individual: Hirst’s mother had left him a substantial inheritance upon her death (see letter 0813, n. 3).
his paper: presumably a paper Grieve was to deliver at a weekly meeting of the Mutual Improvement Society at Queenwood (see letters 0816, n. 4 and 0819 n. 16).
latent heat: the heat necessary to change a liquid into vapour, or a solid into a liquid or vapour, without the occurrence of a temperature change (OED).
This medal affair: eleven days after Tyndall learned that he had received the Royal Medal (see letter 0815), he found out that some members of the Royal Society objected to his selection (see letter 0828). He declined the award (see letters 0828; 0830; 0831; and 0837).
The scoundrels who trade in those Diplomas: Mummery had recently ‘bought a German Doctoral Diploma in London’ (see letter 0817, n. 4).
the University: not identified.
parabolic mirrors: a mirror with a cross-section in the curved shape of a parabola.
the Abbotts Ann people: on 9 December, Hirst gave a lecture on Heat at Abbotts Ann, a village near Andover, England to ‘a small, quiet audience’ (Hirst, ‘Journals’, 25 December 1853) (see also letter 0833, n. 2).
Please cite as “Tyndall0836,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on