London Wednesday morning | 1857
My dear Tom.
I have been thinking of writing to you almost every day during the last week, but I am also entangled in my subject2 and find it hard for my thoughts to break away from it. This morning your note3 came to me and was like a spark to tinder causing my previous resolution to ignite and take effect. I was going to have a walk before commencing work, but I will throw the walk back for half an hour and write to you in the mean time. On the whole I have been getting on well since my return. My knowledge of what I can bear, and when to cease working is increasing and altogether I find myself far more manageable. I wish I had greater working power; but it is a better wish to desire to make the most of that which I possess by abstaining from squandering it. I am hard at work upon the glacier question: since my return I have been experimenting upon ice and have obtained true—I think I might call them beautiful—results. I am now drawing up the paper4 and believe me it requires a great amount of patient thought to get the spirit of the mass of facts which we collected rendered manifest. It will be a very heavy discharge of artillery against the viscous theory,5 and will no doubt cause divers dissensions among scientific men. I had intelligence from Edinbro’6 regarding Forbes some days ago, it is said that he is in a very disturbed state of mind about the subject. This I am sorry to hear, and I shall take care in my next paper to give him the full measure of credit which I believe to be his due. Your feelings regarding that communication of Huxleys7 are precisely my own. He had agreed that he should write me a letter upon the subject, but when the document came into my hand I was perfectly astonished. Nevertheless it is so clever that I read it all through with great interest. It is certainly a large paper to get out of two days observations. Huxley is swift and penetrating. I think however that it would be far safer if he had more inertia, and chewed the cud of thought more patiently. I confess I should have feared to publish all that he has published on the grounds which his observations furnish. The testimony of others is so distinct & circumstantial on this question of bubbles that before discarding this testimony I should have felt it necessary to look far deeper into the question.
People are beginning to pour into London and our active life will soon commence. I purpose talking to them upon heat8 here before Easter. I have gone over the subject before and hence its preparation will not be so laborous. Nevertheless I hope to be able to put the question in new lights, and to expand portions which in my former course9 were too meagrely dealt with. I have at earnest solicitation agreed to give a course of six lectures to the boys of Eton10—Last Thursday I gave my first lecture and my second comes on tomorrow. Next month my lectures at the London Institution11 commence, so that I have plenty of work in front of me and around me. I very often dash off to the country on Fridays, and I rejoice to hear that you do the same. We must keep ourselves strong Tom. We must live as men, and not as puny weaklings to whom the joy of vigourous health is unknown. Carlyle says that real health is real holiness,12 and I can conceive the truth of the statement, for as a moral being when my health is strong I feel myself better braver and nobler. Now that the thing is passed and gone I do love to think that we accomplished so much together upon the glaciers. I love to think on that day of toil which placed us beside each other on the top of Mont Blanc.13 By the way I have had thoughts lately of devoting the hours of the evening which I dare not employ at taxing work in the writing of a book, in which I should connect the glorious objects which one encounters in the Alps with their principles. I think something might be done in this way which would have a wide circulation.
Debus was here a few days ago. Playfair & an American clergyman14 called upon me asking whether I thought Debus a likely man for a post at Toronto15 worth £350 a year. The result was that Debus came to town to see the clergyman, but it came to nothing. Heinrich’s language is a great hinderniss16 to him.
Frankland is now in London, he has left Owens College,17 and a young fellow named Roscoe18 succeeds him in Manchester.19
This is General Sabine’s birthday, he came to me yesterday and engaged me to dine with him.
I will send you the papers very soon and now I want you to accomplish a commission for me. Go like a good fellow to Monsieur Duboscq, Rue de l’Odeon No 21. and request him to send me forthwith a box of coal points20—not a few merely but a good quantity. My stock is almost exhausted—indeed I had to borrow one or two a few days ago. Perhaps it would be safest if you would receive the points from Duboscq yourself and forward them to me. If they reach me within the coming fortnight it will answer.
And now Tom I will say good bye for the present & run out & take my walk. The morning was thick & foggy, but it is clearer now, and my walk will be all the pleasanter.
Affectionately yours | John
RI MS JT/1/T/964
RI MS JT/1/HTYP/504
[Oct 14]: the month and day are given based on Tyndall’s mention of this day being Edward Sabine’s birthday, which was 14 October 1788.
entangled in my subject: most likely his paper on ice, read at the RS on 17 December 1857 and published as J. Tyndall, ‘On Some Physical Properties of Ice’, Phil. Trans., 148 (1858), pp. 211–29. Tyndall wrote in his journal on 18 October 1857 ‘Each day (available) I have been at my memoir. It is an entangled subject and required patient thought to link its parts together’ (Journal, JT/2/13c/1035).
your note: letter missing.
the paper: J. Tyndall, ‘On Some Physical Properties of Ice’, Phil. Trans., 148 (1858), pp. 211–29. Tyndall’s lecture at the RI on this subject occurred on 22 January 1858.
viscous theory: see letter 1306, n. 8.
intelligence from Edinbro’: letter missing, apparently from someone in Edinburgh, Scotland, possibly James Coxe.
that communication of Huxleys: see letter 1436. Huxley’s letter to Tyndall was published as ‘Observations on the Structure of Glacial Ice’, Phil. Mag., 14 (1857), pp. 241–260.
talking to them upon heat: Tyndall presented ‘Ten Lectures on Heat, Considered as a Mode of Motion’ at the RI on Thursdays from 21 January to 25 March 1858. See RI Guard Book, vol. 2, p. 105.
my former course: Tyndall presented ‘Twelve Lectures on Heat’ at the RI on Tuesdays from 17 January to 4 April 1854.
the boys of Eton: students at Eton College, see letter 1296, n. 8. Tyndall had previously lectured there in 1856.
the London Institution: see letter 1319, n. 5. Tyndall gave ‘Six Lectures on the Phenomena of Light’ at the LI, beginning 14 December 1857 and each following week through 18 January 1858.
Carlyle says that real health is real holiness: in an inaugural address at Edinburgh on 2 April 1866, Thomas Carlyle stated, ‘It is a curious thing, which I remarked long ago, and have often turned in my head, that the old word for “holy” in the Teutonic languages, heilig, also means “healthy.” Thus Heilbronn means indifferently “holy-well” or “health-well.” We have in the Scotch, too, “hale,” and its derivatives; and, I suppose, our English word “whole” (with a “w”), all of one piece, without any hole in it, is the same word. I find that you could not get any better definition of what “holy” really is than “healthy”’ (T. Carlyle, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, 5 vols. (London: Chapman and Hall, 1899), vol. 4 pp. 449– 483, on p. 479). Perhaps Tyndall had heard this thought from conversation with Carlyle before it was expressed in the Edinburgh address.
Mont Blanc: in letters to Faraday (1419), Juliet Pollock (1421), and Hooker (1428), Tyndall described his and Hirst’s ascent of Mont Blanc on 13 August 1857.
an American clergyman: not identified.
Toronto: the University of Toronto, where Tyndall was offered a position in 1855 but declined. See letter 1493, n. 13.
hinderniss: obstacle (German).
Owens College: founded in 1851, the college is now known as the University of Manchester.
Roscoe: Henry Roscoe (1833–1915), an English chemist who, like Tyndall, had studied under Robert Bunsen in Germany. Roscoe remained at Owens College until 1886 (ODNB).
Manchester: see letter 1306, n. 10.
coal points: or carbon point or charcoal point, used in electric apparatus.
Please cite as “Tyndall1440,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on