Ventnor1 | Isle of Wight2 | 28 June 1854
My dear Tyndall
You see by the top of this letter how much habit prevails over me. I have just read yours from thence3 and yet I think myself there. However I have left its science in very good keeping & am glad to hear you are at Experiment: but how is the health? not well I fear. I wish you would get yourself strong first and work afterward:– as for the fruits I am sure they will be good, for though I despond as for myself I do not for you. You are young I am old, you are fresh in thought I am exhausted in thoughts and little more than a thing of habits – but then our subjects are so glorious that to work at them rejoices & encourages the feeblest delights & enchants the strongest.
I have not yet heard any thing from Magnus – thoughts of him always delight me – we shall look at his black sulphur together.4 I heard from Schoenbein5 the other day who tells me Liebig6 is full of ozone i.e of allotropic oxygen
Good bye for the present. We are moderately well – my wife weak.
Ever My dear Tyndall | Yours Truly | M. Faraday
APS Mss.Ms.Coll.200
Faraday Correspondence 4:2859
Ventnor: ‘Royal Institution’ is crossed through above ‘Ventnor’. Ventnor, a town on the Isle of Wight, was built along the southern cliffs.
Isle of Wight: see letter 0945, n. 13.
read yours from thence: Faraday refers to Tyndall’s letter of 25 June (see letter 0943), when Tyndall was in Ventnor.
from Magnus … black sulphur together: in a letter of 25 June, Tyndall informed Faraday to expect a paper and specimens of black sulphur from Magnus (see letter 0943, n. 2).
Schoenbein: Christian Friedrich Schönbein (1799–1868), a German-Swiss Professor of Physics and Chemistry at the University of Basel, Switzerland. He was known for his discovery of the fuel cell, guncotton, and ozone. He also corresponded extensively with Faraday; see The Letters of Faraday and Schoenbein, 1836–1862, ed. G. W. A. Kahlbaum and F. V. Darbishire (London: Williams & Norgate, 1899).
Liebig: Justus Liebig (see letter 0852, n. 7).
Please cite as “Tyndall0948,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on