Dear Tyndall
Do you remember at the big hall at Vienna2 an announcement of fellows elected into the Imp. Acad. Cæs. Nat. Cur. Leopoldina3—well that sapient body, (of which all I knew then and now I told you, and which was that it was the oldest scientific body in Europe) want to make a member of you, and have asked me if I can supply your age and place of birth.
I could not get to R.S. Council to day having another engagement:
Willy4 is improving at Hastings,5 wearing out his shoes and learning to throw stones—Mrs H.6 will I think go on to Hastings next week.
I shall go to Brighton7 to see them on Sunday
Ever yours | J. D. Hooker.
Also can you tell me Faraday’s age and where he was born?
RI MS JT/1/TYP/8/2542
LT Typescript Only
[2 April 1857]: date is given based on a note on the letter from LT. Tyndall was indeed asked to become a member of the Academia Caesarea Leopoldino Carolina Naturae Curiosorum in 1857, proposed by Berthold Seemann and Hooker. See letter 1427.
the big hall at Vienna: Tyndall visited Vienna in 1856 for a meeting of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher (German Naturalist Academy), held from 16–19 September at the Polytechnic Institution (Journal, JT/2/13c/912–14).
Imp. Acad. Cæs. Nat. Cur. Leopoldina: the Academia Caesarea Leopoldino Carolina Naturae Curiosorum, founded in 1652 and later renamed Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina. Sometimes referred to simply as the Leopoldina, it is now the Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften, Leopoldina.
Willy: William Hooker, aged four.
Hastings: perhaps Willy (b. 1853) was sent to the seaside town of Hastings for health reasons. Frances Hooker mentioned to Tyndall later this same year that her unwell mother would be going to St Leonards-on-Sea, a part of the town of Hastings (see letter 1432).
Mrs H.: Frances Hooker, Joseph Hooker’s wife.
Brighton: a resort town on the southern England coast, close to Hastings.
Please cite as “Tyndall1365,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on