Mon cher Mr Tyndall
J’ai tardé à vous écrire. J’ai eu des cloux à Londres. Un nouveau clou (Boil) qui ne faisait que poindre à mon départ, s’est enflammé par le frottement. Bref, il a fallu l’inciser en quatre. Il était placé à la nuque. Je suis à peu près guéri. Il faut espérer qu’il n’en reviendra pas d’autres. J’aurais pu vous écrire dès mon retour. Mais comme depuis plus de trente ans que je suis professeur (depuis 20 ans à la Sorbonne), je n’ai jamais dû manquer ni à une leçon, ni à un examen, par suite d’une indisposition. Je me trouve tout déconcentré, quand j’ai quelque chose j’oublie mes lettres, &c.
J’ai lu le travail de Mr Wiedeman. Je n’ai rien à changer au plan de travail dont j’ai donné une partie dans ma réponse à Mr Langberg. Je ne crois pas que je me sois trompé dans mon premier travail sur l’effet du contact. Cependant c’est à revoir. Je dirai, comme dans toutes les circonstances, ce que j’aurai trouvé, que j’aie raison en tout ou seulement en partie ou que j’aie même tort en tout ou en partie. Nous verrons. Comme ce travail, à la manière dont je le conçois exigera assez d’expériences et occasionnera assez de dépenses, je vous prie de n’en pas parler. Quoiqu’il soit très naturel de se défendre quand on est plus ou moins contredit et même c’est un devoir pour celui qui recherche la vérité avant tout.
Je vous réitère mes remercîments pour toutes les aimables dispositions que vous m’avez montrées à Londres. Présentez, je vous prie, mes compliments à vos deux jeunes collègues Hofmann et Malone et entretenez moi dans la bienveillante amitié de Mr Faraday.
15 juin 1856 | Votre dévoué | C. Despretz
P.S. J’ai écrit à Mr Grove. Je vais écrire à Mr Babbage.
Je vais faire venir Noad que j’ai parcouru à Royal Institution. Non pas pour y voir mes expériences, mais celles qui ont été faites en Angleterre sur l’électricité car je suppose que s’il oublie quelques étrangers, il n’oubliera pas les compatriotes.
My dear Mr Tyndall,
I have delayed writing to you.1 I had boils in London.2 A new boil appeared as soon as I left, and it flared up due to friction. In short, it had to be lanced into four. It was on the nape of the neck and is almost healed. Let us hope that it will not return. I could have written you a letter as soon as I returned. But as I have been a professor for more than 30 years (for 20 years at the Sorbonne3), I have never had to miss either one lesson or one examination due to illness. I find myself confused when I have something;4 I forget my letters, etc.
I have read Mr Wiedeman’s work.5 I have nothing to alter in terms of the work that I partly gave in my answer to Mr Langberg.6 I do not think I was wrong in my first investigation on the effect of contact. However, it can be criticised. As I have found on all occasions: either I was wholly or partially right, or I was wholly or partially wrong. We will see. Since this work, as I see it, will require quite a few experiments and will involve quite a bit of expense, I ask you not to speak of it. Although it is very natural to defend oneself when more or less contradicted, and even though it is a duty for those who seek the truth above all.
I would like to repeat my gratitude for all the kindness that you have shown me in London. Please send my compliments to your two young colleagues, Hofmann and Malone,7 and give my friendly respects to Mr Faraday.
15 June 1856 | Your devoted | C. Despretz
P.S. I wrote to Mr Grove. I will write to Mr Babbage.
I will get hold of Noad,8 the book I skimmed through at the Royal Institution. Not to see whether my experiments were reported, but to learn about those electrical experiments which were made in England, since I assume that if Noad ignores some foreigners, he will not forget hsi compatriots.
RI MS JT/1/D/125
Despretz’s staccato style with sentences lacking subordinate clauses was probably deliberate in a kind attempt to make his French easier for Tyndall to understand.
I had boils in London: Despretz had been in London in May 1856. See letter 1219.
at the Sorbonne: Despretz was Profeesor of Physics at the École Polytechnique, the College Henri IV, and at the Sorbonne in Paris.
when I have something: whenever he felt unwell.
Mr Wiedeman’s work: Gustav Heinrich Wiedemann (1826‒99), German physicist and physical chemist. A life-long friend of Helmholtz, he was appointed Professor of Physics at the University of Basel in 1854. There he worked chiefly on endomosis and the magnetization of iron and steel. Tyndall had first met Wiedemann in Berlin on 2 May 1851 (RI MS JT/2/13b/541). After another meeting on 15 July 1851 her recorded: ‘Wiedermann is a clever fellow also, but somehow you feel that there is no real manly bottom to the man. “He smiles and whispers low” but the smile is not one you would trust very far’ (RI MS JT/2/13b/611). Despretz was referring to Wiedemann’s paper, ‘Ueber die Fortplanzung der Wärme in den Metallen’, Poggend. Annal., 45 (1855), pp. 337‒47. This was translated as ‘On the Transmission of Heat in Metals’, Phil. Mag., 10 (1855), pp. 393‒400.
My answer to Mr Langberg: Christian Langberg (1810‒57), a Norwegian pupil of Gustav Magnus in Berlin who had been Professor of Physics at the University of Christiana since 1847. In 1845 he had published ‘Versuche über das Wärmeleitungsvermögen fester Körper’, Poggend. Annal., 66 (1845), pp. 1‒30; this appeared as ‘On the Determination of the Temperature and Conducting Power of Solid Bodies’ in Phil. Mag., 28 (1846), pp. 161‒6. The paper suggested Despretz’s observations were inaccurate. Twelve years later, Despretz challenged Langberg’s findings in ‘Note en réponse à M. Langberg, de Christiana, nouvaux nombres sur la propagation de la chaleur dans les corps’, Paris, Comptes Rendus, 35 (1852), pp. 540-8.
Malone: Thomas Malone (1823‒67), photographic chemist and partner in the firm of Henneman and Malone from 1848 to 1851. He lectured on chemistry and photography at the London Institution.
I will get hold of Noad: Henry Minchin Noad (1815‒77; FRS 1856), chemist and electrician. Professor of Chemistry at St George’s Hospital in London since 1847. He published an influential text, A Course of Eight Lectures on Electricity, Galvanism, Magnetism and Electro-Magnetism (London: Scott, Webster & Geary, 1839). There were three editions before he republished it as A Manual of Electricity, 2 vols. (London: George Knight, 1855).
Please cite as “Tyndall1240,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on