Observatory | Thursday
My dear Dr Tyndall,
The enclosed2 ought certainly to have been in Kelland’s report of Section A,3 as read by the Duke yesterday.4 Smyth5 is with me, & quite concurs in opinion. I have sent it to Kelland & Phillips.6 Will you – if you think as I do, kindly do every thing in your power to have the omission rectified in the printed reports –
Yours ever faithfully | J. P. Nichol
Dr Tyndall
RI MS JT/1/N/13
Nichol: John Pringle Nichol (1804–59) was a Scottish astronomer who helped popularize the subject and served as professor of astronomy at the University of Glasgow.
The enclosed: enclosure missing.
Kelland’s report of Section A: The Cambridge-educated Philip Kelland (1808–79) was professor of mathematics at Edinburgh University. At the 1855 Glasgow meeting of the BAAS he served as president of Section A, which covered ‘Mathematical and Physical Science’. It would appear that some material that Kelland should have supplied to the Duke of Argyll, in order to be incorporated into his presidential address, had not been sent.
read by the Duke yesterday: George John Douglas Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll (1823–1900), who was a prominent liberal politician, served as the incoming president of the BAAS and delivered his presidential address on Wednesday, 12 September (Brit. Assoc. Rep. 1855, pp. lxxiii–lxxxvi).
Smyth: Charles Piazzi Smyth (l819–1900) served as Astronomer Royal for Scotland (1846–88) and as professor of practical astronomy at the University of Edinburgh. He contributed three papers to the 1855 BAAS meeting.
Phillips: The geologist John Phillips (1800–74), who was the deputy reader in geology at the University of Oxford, served as assistant general secretary to the Glasgow BAAS meeting.
Please cite as “Tyndall1135,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on