17th Feb. 1858
My dear Sorby
Your note1 came to me when I was in the midst of a series of military examinations,2 and my health has been so shaky since as to take all the spirit of writing out of me. The facts to which you refer can only be referred in a general way to the influence of the attraction of the sides of the quartz upon the liquid within it—which attraction opposes itself to that of crystallisation: There is a specific attraction between ice & water, as between every crystal & the liquid in which it is formed. You know that crystals suspended in a liquid may be nursed so as to become of enormous size while no particle of solid matter is deposited on the walls of the containing vessel. With regard to the lectures,3 I am a bad source of information at present, because I have been compelled to keep so much at home—for astronomy I dont suppose you could have a better man than Grant of the Astronomical Society;4 I have never heard him myself, but he has lectured at the London Institution5 & I believe given satisfaction.
Very sincerely yours | John Tyndall
Sheffield Archives SLPD/51/107 – 17 Feb 1858
Your note: letter 1488.
military examinations: see letter 1476, n. 1, and letter 1490, n. 4.
With regard to the lectures: in letter 1488, Sorby asked if Tyndall could ‘put me in the way of some lectures, suitable for our Lit. & Phil. Society?’, especially in astronomy.
Grant of the Astronomical Society: Robert Grant (1814–92), astronomer and editor of the Royal Astronomical Society’s Monthly Notices from 1852–60 (ODNB).
London Institution: see letter 1319, n. 5.
Please cite as “Tyndall1492,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on