Royal Institution, Dec, 22nd, 1857.
My dear Friend
I send you a short abstract1 of a paper2 on some physical properties of ice which was read before the Royal Society a few days ago.
The observations upon glaciers in which the paper originated will I hope be communicated to the Royal Society at the end of January, or early in the month of February.3 As soon as it is read I shall be happy to give you a short account of what it contains.
The proofs4 are coming in from Mr Walkers regularly: I have already received as far as page 603. The work will prove invaluable to English men of science as a book of reference. To the general English public it would I think be more acceptable if the style were more purely English: but the probability is that you did not write for the general public, and therefore regard the question of style to be of small importance.
Your friend Faraday is very well and is preparing to give the young people a course of 6 lectures at Xmas.5 Sabine, Grove, Wheatstone, Gassiot &c are all well.
I had a glorious season upon the ice, and clung faithfully to the Montanvert6 for 6 weeks—I descended from it but once to Chamouni7 and that was for the purpose of getting the laws regarding guides abolished in my case.8 On the 13th of August I walked with a friend9 and a single guide10 to the top of Mont Blanc11 and learned a good deal.
Will you kindly remember me to Madame DelaRive12 and to your son and daughter.13 I have not forgotten the pleasant day I spent among you
Believe me | always Yours Sincerely | J. Tyndall
RI MS JT/1/TYP/1/353
LT Typescript Only
short abstract: J. Tyndall, ‘On Some Physical Properties of Ice’, Roy. Soc. Proc., 9 (1857), pp. 76–80.
paper: J. Tyndall, ‘On Some Physical Properties of Ice’, Phil. Trans., 148 (1858), pp. 211–29.
The observations upon glaciers… month of February: Tyndall’s paper on these observations was not received and read at the RS until 20 May 1858 and published as ‘On the Physical Phenomena of Glaciers–Part I. Observations on the Mer de Glace’, Phil. Trans., 148 (1859), pp. 261–78
proofs: see letter 1293, n. 16.
give the young people a course of 6 lectures at Xmas: the RI’s annual Christmas Lectures for children began in 1827 and still continue. Over his career, Faraday gave nineteen Christmas Lectures, with ‘Static Electricity’ as the topic in 1857. Tyndall would give twelve beginning in 1861. See F. A. J. L. James (ed.), Christmas at the Royal Institution: An Anthology of Lectures (Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific, 2007).
Montanvert: see letter 1415, n. 15.
Chamouni: see letter 1353, n. 9.
getting the laws regarding guides abolished in my case: see letter 1419, where Tyndall related to Faraday that he was able to bypass climbing rules regarding having guides because his pursuit was scientific in nature rather than recreational. The following summer, Tyndall would have difficulty with this (see letter 1551).
a friend: Thomas Hirst.
a single guide: Edouard Simond.
Mont Blanc: see letter 1459, n. 8.
Madame DelaRive: Louise-Victoire-Marie de la Rive (née Fatio, 1808–74), whom he married in 1855 after his first wife passed away in 1850.
your son and daughter: De la Rive had two sons and three daughters with his first wife, the writer Jeanne-Mathilde Duppa (1808–50), whom he married in 1826. One of his sons, Lucien de la Rive (1834–1924), was also a physicist; the other, William de la Rive (1827–1900), a writer and politician.
Please cite as “Tyndall1473,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on