Oak Field, Moss Side | Manchester May 2/57
My dear Tyndall
Many thanks for your kind letter2 announcing the selection of Smith3 by the Council.4 I am sorry you took the trouble to correct the slip of pen you made as we all know that Selection by the Council is in fact Election by the Society, and it is a gratifying proof of the confidence of the Society in its managers that this can be so confidently said. I communicated the intelligence to Dr Smith this morning who expressed much gratification and is very thankful for the kind interest you have taken in his behalf. I much regretted hearing of your illness,5 but trust you are now fully restored. I hope you will not be tempted by the ardour of philosophical research to overstep the limits of exertion which your health & strength can accomplish. I have seen so much of this that I always advise my friends to take things easily, which is also an advice I have been obliged to take myself.
Believe me | Yours always truly | James P Joule
RI MS JT/1/J/137
RI MS JT/1/TYP/2/661
James Prescott Joule: see letter 1297, n. 3.
your kind letter: letter missing.
Smith: Andrew Smith (1797–1872), a Scottish surgeon and zoologist who studied natural history in South Africa and led an expedition into Central Africa. He authored Illustrations of the Zoology of South Africa, 5 vols (London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1838–50) (ODNB).
Council: Council of the RS. Smith was elected FRS on 5 May 1857. See Roy. Soc. Proc., 8 (1857), p. 395.
your illness: see letter 1384, n. 1.
Please cite as “Tyndall1386,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on