Royal Institution. | 8th, Dec, 1856.
My dear Frankland
I am overjoyed to find that I shall have an opportunity, of afflicting you every Saturday for 7 weeks after Easter.1 I am so glad that you have got over your terror of Dyspepsia!2 I had a talk with Bence Jones over the matter, and though my hopes were gloomy in the extreme I recommended him to write to you. By George I am a cubit3 taller since I read your letter4—The opportunity of pinching you and the luxury of kicking you if I please although still merely prospective is highly edifying and delightful to me The best way to respond to your questions is—and I do it by return—to send you the syllabusses of the last courses. There are no chemical courses before Easter this time so that there is no fear of your being forestalled. Huxley,5 John Phillips6 the Geologist and your implacable foe the writer of this note7 are the lecturers before Easter. Give my kind remembrances to Mrs Frankland,8 she shall have the luxury of nursing you every week after your return from London.9
Ever Yours | John Tyndall
RI MS JT/1/TYP/12/3968
LT Typescript Only
Every Saturday for 7 weeks after Easter: Frankland gave a series of seven Saturday lectures at the RI on the ‘Relations of Chemistry to Graphic and Plastic Art’, which began on 25 April 1857 and ran through 6 June 1857, 23 May being the specific mention here. See RI Guard Book, vol. 2, p. 99, and Russell, Edward Frankland, p. 187.
Dyspepsia: indigestion (OED).
cubit: a unit of measurement roughly equal to the length of a man’s forearm, between 18 and 22 inches, or 45 cm (OED).
your letter: letter missing.
Huxley: Huxley presented at the RI ‘Twelve Lectures on Physiology and Comparative Anatomy’.
John Phillips: John Phillips (1800–74), English geologist. He developed a global geologic time scale and coined the term Mesozoic (ODNB). Phillips presented at the RI ‘Ten Lectures on Leading Questions in Geology’.
the writer of this note: Tyndall presented ‘Eleven Lectures on Sound’, delivered on Thursdays at the RI from 22 January to 2 April 1857. Following the Easter holiday, he delivered another course on sound, eight lectures from 23 April to 11 June. See RI Guard Book, vol. 2, p. 98–9.
Mrs Frankland: Sophie Frankland (née Fick, 1821–74), of Cassel, near Marburg in the state of Hesse-Cassel. Edward Frankland met her in 1847, on his first visit to Marburg. They became engaged in 1849, and married in 1851. Two of her brothers were professors in the University of Marburg, and her father, Friedrich W. Fick (1783–1861), was chief engineer of the state. See Russell, Edward Frankland, pp. 83–91.
your return from London: to Manchester, England, where Frankland was professor of chemistry at Owens College (now University of Manchester).
Please cite as “Tyndall1308,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on