Paris. Decr 19th 1857
My dear John
John Martin has arrived with my books and a few of your memoirs.1 He tells me he has lost a small letter2 I sent to him long ago to deliver to you; in it was the following, (as far as I know) correct account of our money transactions since we last struck a balance about three years ago at Vine Cottage3
I owe you £ s
for sundry small sums recd at Broughton4 2..5
for one very large sum ‘ ‘ ‘ 20..0
for money paid to Pridie 14..13
‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Wright 25..0
‘ Bill drawn on you at Pau5 10..0
‘ fares from Chamouni6 (50 francs) 2..0
Total 73..18
£ s
To set against this I sent you a draft from Paris 50-0
paid Duboscq for Char. points7 1-12
Total 51..12
which deducted from 73..18
leaves the amount I sent by John Martin 22..6
So much for money matters
Your articles on the Stereoscope8 pleased me very much. They are clearly and well written. You will republish them some day and if you do I would advise you to enter more into detail with respect to the lenticular stereoscope.9 It struck me on reading it that though perfectly lucid as far as it goes the lenticular [image here] not so completely exhausted and finished off as the reflecting telescope. As there is no fear of ‘your wearying the reader’ too you might turn the pseudoscope inside out as it does its [hat]. It would serve to familiarize your readers, especially young ones with the true way of viewing this and related subjects. As I read it over (only once) I detected but one error and that a very small one; in case of republication however it might as well be corrected as not. Near the top of the second column of page 101 you say ‘every pair of corresponding points of the base are more distant from each other &c’… you mean less
At present I am tolerably well and am working accordingly my time is a little more broken than it was for I attend a course of lectures by Liouville10 at the College de France and work them out in my usual way which you may guess takes time. The subject (Theory of Numbers) is one I have hitherto too much neglected
I have at last made Poinsots acquaintance the finest old French gentleman I have ever met He is very old and feeble but his faculties still preserve their characteristic clearness. I visited him at his own house the other day and we had a long talk of two hours, on leaving him he insisted upon me taking from him copies of all he has ever written which to me was a valued and valuable gift. How are you? Write some day to
Your affectionate Son | TA Hirst
I have not included in our account the £9 sent to H. Hill11 since I expect he will soon repay you the £4 of it which is still owing.
RI MS JT/1/H/237
my books and a few of your memoirs: see letter 1460, n. 17.
a small letter: see letter 1458.
Vine Cottage: Hirst’s residence in Broughton. He had previously mentioned to Tyndall that he had ‘moved to my new residence and have commenced my initiation into the mysteries of household matters. I have already started in good earnest to make the place a neat and habitable one, by the time you next visit Queenwood I shall have a roof to shelter to you and you may dwell under it in peace as long as you wish and thank nobody for your lodging’ (see letter 0977, Thomas Hirst to John Tyndall, 5 October 1854, Tyndall Correspondence, vol. 4).
Broughton: a village in Hampshire, England near to Queenwood College and Stockbridge, and location of Broughton Hill which Tyndall mentioned in letter 1306. Hirst moved to a new residence there in the fall of 1854 (see letter 0977, Thomas Hirst to John Tyndall, 5 October 1854, Tyndall Correspondence, vol. 4).
Pau: see letter 1298, n. 4.
Chamouni: see letter 1353, n. 9.
Char. Points: see letter 1440, n. 20.
articles on the Stereoscope: see letter 1460, n. 16.
lenticular stereoscope: the lenticular stereoscope was developed by Brewster to include lenses to make viewing the double image easier. It enjoyed great popularity around the time of the Great Exhibition in London in 1851.
a course of lectures by Liouville: Liouville gave eleven lecture courses on the theory of numbers while teaching at the College de France from 1851–82. See K. S. Williams, Number Theory in the Spirit of Liouville (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011), p. 9.
H. Hill: Henry Hill, a friend of Hirst’s.
Please cite as “Tyndall1472,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on