My dear Tom.
The following thought has just occurred to me:–
The ‘magnetic medium’ is a subject which excites real interest at the present time. A sound remark upon the subject will command attention and bring the maker of the remark into notice.
Williamson you know has made some statements upon my letter to Mr Faraday.1 I send you his paper – it is ingenious, and apparently convincing. In my opinion however it is altogether wide of the mark. The paragraph marked with the cross2 and which contains the marrow of the whole paper, will not I think bear strict analysis. If you are of the same opinion then I thought it might be of service to you to write a short paper upon the subject3 which I will be glad to bring before the Royal Society.
For my part I intend to avoid skirmishing at present. I shall deal comprehensively with the subject at some future day.
affectionately yours | John
RI MS JT/1/T/1007
Williamson … my letter to Mr Faraday: A. W. Williamson, ‘Note on the Magnetic Medium’, Roy. Soc. Proc., 6 (1856), pp. 306–8, which was read at the RS on 15 March 1855. Having studied in Heidelberg, Giessen and Paris, Alexander William Williamson (1824–1904) was appointed in 1849 to the chair of practical chemistry at University College, London.
The paragraph marked with the cross: Probably the paragraph (in Williamson, ‘Note’, p. 307) in which Williamson suggested that ‘all repulsion by the magnet might be owing to the attraction exercised on the medium being stronger than that on the body repelled […] And as phenomena of diamagnetism are observed in a so-called vacuum, it was thought that some “magnetic medium” might be present there.’
a short paper upon the subject: This became Hirst’s paper, ‘On the Existence of a Magnetic Medium’, which Tyndall read at the RS on 21 June 1855 and was subsequently published in Roy. Soc. Proc., 7 (1854–5), pp. 448–54.
Please cite as “Tyndall1058,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on