Pise 15 mai 56
Mon cher monsieur,
Je suis bien content d’avoir une occasion pour me rappeller à vous et pour revenir un peu à la [Science1]. J’ai addresse au General Sabine un memoire manuscrit qui serait pour le Phil Transac et que fait suite à toute la serie de mes Memoires d’Electrophysiologie qui ont déjà eu l’honneur de paraitre dans les memoires de la S.R.[Royal Society]. J’espere que celui-ci aussi [aura]2 la meme distinction. C’est un sujet nouveau et c’est la première fois qu’on explique par un [fait]3 physique bien connu un phenomene d’Electrophysiologie tres obscur. Je serai bien recompensé de tout ce que j’ai du faire et travailler pour [y] reussir, si je parviens a [savoir/faire]4 qu’il est aprouvé par la [S.R.].
Rappelez aux souvenirs de M. Faraday et des autres amis de [la S.R.].
[Croyes a ma/en m?]5
C. Matteucci
Pisa, 15th May 1854
My dear Sir,
I am pleased to have an opportunity to remind you of me and to come back to science for a while.6 I have sent a manuscript to General Sabine which is aimed at the Phil. Trans.7 and follows the series of my essays on Electro-physiology previously honoured by publication in the proceedings of the R.S. I hope that this one too will receive the same distinction. It is on a new subject and for the first time it explains a phenomenon of Electro-physiology by a well known piece of physics.8 I would be amply rewarded for all the actions and work I had to do in order to succeed, if I obtained the approval of the R.S.
Send my regards to Mr Faraday and the other friends at the R.S.
Believe in [?].
C. Matteucci
RI MS JT/1/M/64
{Science]: The word, which is almost impossible to decipher, might also be ‘Lumière’.
[aura]: word missing in manuscript.
[fait]: the word appears to begin with a ‘T’, but ‘fait’ is the obvious meaning.
[savoir/faire]: it is unclear which verb was intended.
Croyes a ma/ en m ?]: the closing phrase is indecipherable.
to come back to science for a while: an alternative reading might be: ‘to return into the limelight’. Matteucci had been heavily involved in lecturing and electrophysiological research during 1855–6 but was now able to publish new findings.
Phil. Trans. C. Matteucci, ‘Physical-chemical Phenomena of Muscular Contraction’, Phil. Trans., 147 (1857), pp. 129–44, received in 1856.
piece of physics: the dynamical theory of heat. Matteucci argued (n. 7, pp. 143-4) that during muscular contraction chemical action produced an electric current that correlated with the amount of heat produced by the same contraction.
Please cite as “Tyndall1228,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on