Paris. March. 1858
My dear John.
It is Sunday morning and the bright sun shining upon me in bed awoke me earlier than usual. I do not know by what association the spring sun and yourself presented themselves, but it is a fact that no sooner had I rubbed my eyes and exclaimed what a glorious morning! than I added ‘Up you lazy dog and write to John before your breakfast’. It must be a long time since I wrote to you,2 I think it was mid-winter and now it is spring. Nothing very remarkable has occurred in the interim or you would certainly have heard of it. My health has been steadily improving since Xmas. About that time I was very poorly, so ill that I went one day to consult a physician about myself. He was a sensitive fellow and after I had explained to him all the circumstances I must confess he gave me good advice and little medicine. The medicine was merely to pull me over the immediate difficulty. The rest of his advice was for permanent observance. Amongst other things he advised me to take Cod Liver oil regularly, and to take more energetic exercise than my usual walks which, besides swallowing up a good deal of time, were apt to be come too mechanical and thus to lose their efficacy. Accordingly I purchased a pair of dumb-bells and ever since I have made a practice of swinging them rigorously for a quarter of an hour every day. To this and the cod liver oil, which I have found to be exceedingly beneficial, I attribute chiefly the improved state of health I have ever since enjoyed. By your advice too I gave up coffee which has possibly had a good effect also for it is quite true that now, after having ceased to take it habitually, I find that a cup of coffee has the same effect upon me as you describe it to have upon yourself. Lastly I cut off two or three cigars a day and that has done me no harm. As a natural consequence of improved health I have worked better. I have attended two courses of lectures and derived considerable profit from them. By means of Liouvilles lectures on the Theory of Numbers3 I have filled up a gap in my mathematical education, and by means of Chasles lectures on Higher Geometry4 I have increased my power of coping with my own researches. The latter proceed slowly but still not unsatisfactorily. The subject of equally attracting bodies which I am completing is extremely rich in geometrical consequences. It continually forces me to step aside to examine purely geometrical questions, and I allow it to do so because the latter appear to me just as important as the former, and without the one it is certain the other would be incomplete. Thus for a long time I was engaged with curves of the fourth degree, whose attracting properties bear a close relation to those of the conic sections. After devoting much time to them and obtaining some results I thought to be both new and interesting I made the acquaintance of M. Chasles (of which more by and bye) and found that much of what I had done he had already published. My capacity for reading is so limited that I have ceased to be surprised at such events; neither am I so much discouraged at re-finding what is already known, it diminishes the available results of my time and labour it is true, but it increases my power to prosecute other researches. Besides it seldom happens that two independent researches on the same subject are so coincident as to render the publication of both unadvisable, and I shall be able to collect together as much material—of which Chasles has not robbed me—as will make a small memoir.5 I am anxious before the time for my summer holiday arrives to arrange my writing work for publication. I must make every other project give way to this, and on this account I am afraid I shall not have finished in time to accompany you to Switzerland; much as I should enjoy another trip like our last I see little prospect of taking it, not only for the above reason but because it is more than probable that I must go to England this summer, and my income will not allow me to make the two journeys, even if I could spare the time.
I have mentioned my acquaintance with Chasles, and as it has formed one of the pleasantest incidents of the winter I must tell you about its commencement. I had attended his lectures regularly and often had the intention of stepping up to him and introducing myself, but my habitual reserve or hesitation accompanied by bad health caused me to postpone doing so from day to day until the lectures were nearly finished. At last on one of my brighter days I had the courage to break the ice, and we had a very pleasant conversation. He regretted much that I had not introduced…6
RI MS JT/1/H/240
[28]: the day is given by the reference to a ‘Sunday morning’ in March. Tyndall’s reply (letter 1507) was dated Saturday, 10 April 1858. The previous Sunday that fell in March was 28 March.
since I wrote to you: letter 1489.
lectures on the Theory of Numbers: see letter 1472, n. 10.
lectures on Higher Geometry: Chasles lectured at the Collège de Sorbonne of the University of Paris, where he held the chair in higher geometry since 1846.
as will make a small memoir: possibly T. A. Hirst, ‘On the quadric inversion of plane curves’, Roy. Soc. Proc., 14 (1865), pp. 91–106.
I had not introduced…: fragment only, letter is incomplete.
Please cite as “Tyndall1503,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on