Wednesday
My dear Heinrich
Anderson2 sent you all the points and scraps of points that we possess: They are a poor stock, but the shortest of them, they being hard, will burn for some time.
Now listen to me. I am working like a slave, but must have a day or two to strengthen my brain. I am putting what would be the finest experimental enquiry ever made,3 if I had time to complete it—into order before I commence preparing for my Xmas lectures.4 But it will never do to attack these while feeble.
Now you heathen, suppose I go down to Queenwood on Saturday5 would you walk with me over the world on Sunday—If they give me lodgings at Queenwood I would make an effort to remain for the concert which will be on Tuesday.
I will take work with me which I might do on the mornings of Monday and Tuesday. I will walk, run, jump or stand on my head during the afternoons and thus put my body in order.
Mrs Edmondson6 knows what a flabby good for nothing fellow I am, and how necessary it is for such a culprit to be careful in small things—ask her if I bring down some oatmeal with me whether I could not have a little porridge in my bedroom at 8 A.M.
I am living on this at present and thus far it has given me the strength of a Hercules! Answer me quick! | John
With the porridge I can digest chalk.7
RI MS JT/5/11/1363
LT Transcript Only
[early December 1861]: see n. 3–6.
Anderson: Charles Anderson (1790–1866), lecture and laboratory assistant at the Royal Institution 1832–66.
the finest experimental enquiry ever made: refers to Tyndall’s extensive experiments on radiant heat made around this time.
My Xmas lectures: Tyndall first delivered Christmas lectures in 1861 and did not do so again until 1863. See letter 1821 for discussion of Faraday’s decision to no longer deliver the ‘juvenile’ or Christmas lectures and Tyndall’s offer to take them on.
suppose I go down to Queenwood on Saturday: Hirst records that Tyndall was in Queenwood on Tuesday 17 December. Hirst Journal, 22 December 1861 (RI MS JT/2/32c/1598)
Mrs Edmondson: Anne Edmondson, wife of George Edmondson, headmaster of Queenwood College. Anne was very active in the management of the college, to Tyndall’s dismay, and died on 19 November 1863 (Hampshire Advertiser, 21 November 1863, p. 2).
I can digest chalk: for his indigestion.
Please cite as “Tyndall1835,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on