MY DEAR SIR: As soon as I received the letter1 with which you kindly favored me some months ago, I communicated at once with Mr. Longman2 and requested him to forward you the separate sheets of my work on Heat3 according as they appeared. I intended to accompany the sheets with a letter which should express my desire to leave the management with the Messrs. Appleton4 entirely in your hands, but I have been so knocked about-sometimes so ill, sometimes so hard worked, and sometimes engaged so far away from London that I have delayed thus far to write to you. My friend Spencer5 called to see me a few days ago, and from him I had the great gratification of learning that the book has interested you. Indeed, he read portions of letters from Mrs. Youmans6 and yourself which gave me very great pleasure. Since the appearance of the work I have had communications from many of my eminent Continental friends regarding it, and they, I am happy to say, concur in your opinion. A French translation7 of it has already been commenced. I can assure you that I have spared no labor to render a difficult subject intelligible, and it gives me great pleasure to find that I have, at least in some measure, succeeded.
I am now giving a short course of lectures on Sound,8 at the Royal Institution. If I have time I may throw them into a readable form. I have for some time entertained the idea of publishing my lectures gradually and of afterward collecting them and fusing them into a book on general physics. But the time necessary to the proper accomplishment of the task deters me almost from undertaking it. However, it may perhaps be executed by slow degrees.
Mr. Huxley informs me that you are thinking of bringing out his work9 also. I am glad to hear this, for it is an extremely able production. Indeed, there are parts of it which in point of writing power have scarcely ever been excelled….
Good-by, my dear sir; accept my best thanks for the trouble you have taken in my behalf, and believe me | Most sincerely yours, | JOHN TYNDALL.
E. A. Youmans, ‘Tyndall and his American Trip’, Popular Science Monthly, 44 (1894), pp. 502–14, on pp. 505–6
the letter: letter missing.
Mr. Longman: letter missing; either Thomas Longman (1804–79) and William Longman (1813–77) of Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green, publishers of Tyndall’s Heat as a Mode of Motion.
my work on Heat: Heat as a Mode of Motion.
Messrs. Appleton: Appleton’s was an American publishing company based in New York City, founded by Daniel Appleton (1785–1849). At this time the company was under the leadership of his son William Henry Appleton (1814–99). The publishers issued the works of many popular scientists such as Herbert Spencer, Thomas Huxley, and Charles Darwin. They published the American edition of Heat as a Mode of Motion under a slightly modified title: Heat Considered as a Mode of Motion (New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1869).
My friend Spencer: Herbert Spencer.
Mrs. Youmans: Catherine Newton Lee Youmans (c. 1819–94). They were married in 1861 and she often served as an editor for Youmans (ANB).
French translation: see letters 1978, 1990, and 1999.
a short course of lectures on Sound: in 1862 Tyndall delivered a series of lectures at the RI on sound, and these were later developed and published as J. Tyndall, Sound: A Course of Eight Lectures (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1867), and reprinted D. Appleton and Co. in 1871.
his work: T. H. Huxley, Evidence as to Man’s Place in Nature (London: Williams and Norgate, 1863). This was reprinted by D. Appleton and Co. in 1863.
Please cite as “Tyndall2001,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on