25th May 1859
My dear Sir
I think it very desirable that Dr Radcliffe2 should have an opportunity of fully stating his news (which are in many respects very ingenious) of muscular action—This opportunity would be afforded by a full abstract of his paper appearing in the Proceedings of the Royal Society;3 but in the present state of our Knowledge regarding the process4 described in the paper. I think it would be hazardous to publish it in the Philosophical Transactions.
Believe me dear Sir | Very since[rel]y yours | John Tyndall
RS RR/4/215
To [George Gabriel Stokes]: Stokes is the presumed recipient of this letter, as the letter concerns the peer review process of an article for the Roy. Soc. Proc, and included the later addition ‘1859 | Radcliffe | by | Tyndall’ in what appears to be Stokes’s handwriting.
Dr Radcliffe: Charles Bland Radcliffe (1822–89) was made full physician to the Westminster Hospital in 1857. Radcliffe research focused in particular on the nervous system, in particular on the electrical physiology of muscle and nerve (ODNB).
I think it very desirable … Proceedings of the Royal Society: Radcliffe’s research on muscular action was published as Charles Bland Radcliffe, ‘An inquiry into the muscular movements resulting from the action of a galvanic current upon nerve’, Roy. Soc. Proc., 10 (1860), pp. 347–59.
the process: that is, the effect of electrical stimuli on muscles. See also Charles Radcliffe’s earlier publication, ‘On Muscular Action from an electrical point of view’, Roy. Soc. Proc., 9 (1859), pp. 690–7.
Please cite as “Tyndall1616,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on