Friday m[ornin]g
My dear Heins,
It gives me great pleasure to inform you that yesterday2 the Council of the Royal Society did itself the honour of choosing you among the fifteen to be recommended for election.3 You may take it for granted that your election is secured.
It gratified me much to observe the very strong support which you received. You were very near the head of a list of I believe forty five candidates.
Now old fellow light your cigar, and take a pleasant tranquil puff, and enjoy the thought of being what you ought to have been long ago. The colleague of your friend
John
Tom4 was also chosen. Greville Williams,5 Roscoe,6 and Simpson7 I am sorry to say did not come in—but I think they are sure to be elected next year.
RI MS JT/1/T/342
RI MS JT/5/11/1376
[19 April 1861]: see n. 2.
yesterday: The Council meeting, at which Tyndall was present, was held on Thursday 18 April 1861.
for election: as a Fellow of the Royal Society. Debus was elected FRS at the Council Meeting held on 6 June 1861 (see also letter 1696).
Tom: Thomas Hirst was also elected in 1861.
Greville Williams: Charles Greville Hanson Williams (1829–1910), chemist, was elected in 1862.
Roscoe: Henry Enfield Roscoe (1833–1915), chemist, was elected in 1863. See letter 1748, n. 1.
Simpson: Maxwell Simpson (1815–1902). He was an Irish chemist, who had studied in Bunsen’s laboratory in Marburg. He was elected in 1862. His wife, Mary (née Martin) was the sister of Thomas Hirst’s wife, Anna, who died in 1857.
Please cite as “Tyndall1779,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on