My dear Clausius.
I have been prevented from replying to your last kind letter2 by a very bad head. Since last September my brain has been continuously grinding, and now I am feeling the effect. For the last six weeks I have not been able to visit any of my friends—not even able to go up and have a little dinner with Faraday being quite unfit for the conversation. I am now very low indeed, and my friend Huxley3 is equally so. Five weeks ago we agreed to bear each other company to Switzerland, and we start next week. Were my health not so broken I should undoubtedly accept your kind invitation,4 but I really shall be unfit for all intercourse with my fellow men until the mountain air restores my energies. We might perhaps be able to arrange matters so that we might come to England together. I shall return about the 20th of August.
My intention is to go with Huxley straight to Grindelwald,5 and to remain there until both of us get a little strength. Afterward I shall make my way to the Aggishorn6 & thence to Zermatt
In London you will find it a great convenience to be able to visit the Athenaeum Club;7 I shall have your name put down upon the list of the foreign celebrities that are to be invited. The club house is a fine building & furnished with everything calculated to promote the Physical & Intellectual well-being of a man.
Will you present my kindest regards to your wife.8 I do not know yet how my vacation is to end, but if I can manage to take in Zürich on my return I shall be delighted to do so.
I beg of you also to present my kind remembrances to Professors Mousson,9 Escher,10 and any other of the Naturforschende Gesellschaft.11
Believe me dear Clausius | Yours ever truly | John Tyndall
RI MS JT/1/T/238
[c.25 June 1862]: dated with reference to Tyndall’s departure for Switzerland on 4 July. ‘25 Juni 1862’ is written in pencil at the top of the letter, probably not in Tyndall’s hand.
your last kind letter: letter 1906.
Huxley: Tyndall’s friend Thomas Huxley wrestled with depression throughout his life; the death of his first-born son Noel in 1860 had exacerbated his troubles.
your kind invitation: in letter 1906, Clausius had invited Tyndall to visit him in Zurich.
Grindelwald: a village and in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the of in . The landscape surrounding the
village is dominated by the Mittellegi ridge of the Eiger.
the Aggishorn: the Eggischhorn, a mountain of the Bernese Alps in the Swiss canton of Valais.
Athenaeum Club: a private members’ club located at 107 Pall Mall in London,
particularly for those with intellectual interests, and accomplishments in art, science, or
literature. Tyndall was elected a member on 31 January 1860. The club was founded in 1824 by
John Wilson Croker (1780–1857) and others.
your wife: Adelheid Clausius.
Mousson: see letter 1906, n. 4.
Escher: Arnold Escher von der Linth.
Naturforschende Gesellschaft: see letter 1906, n. 6.
Please cite as “Tyndall1907,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on