My dear friend
Since our conversation I have been thinking how I can help you & Frankland without hurting you.
It would please me much if you and he would give me the wording of the objects of the fund1 unless indeed no wording whatever will do & then I shall prefer avoiding offence to you to helping science & the whole thing must stop.
My intention was something like the following subject to your & Franklands approval
To enlarge the objects of the Holland fund2 as that Donation fund for the promotion of Scientific Research at the Royal Institution.
1st by providing scientific instruments
2nd by procuring the best assistants
3rd by enabling the professors to give as much of their time as possible to research in the laboratory
Will you and Dr Frankland alter this in any way you please
I oblige | [1–2 words illeg] | H Bence Jones | June 9 1863
RI MS JT/1/J/53
the objects of the fund: originally Bence Jones had intended a fund to support the researches of Tyndall and Frankland by increasing funding for their research and to pay their assistants. The result was the ‘Holland Fund’ (see n. 2; also see Ascent of John Tyndall, pp. 180–1).
Holland fund: the Holland Fund, or Donation Fund, established to promote experimental researches by the Royal Institution, was named after Henry Holland (1788–1873), first baronet, an English physician and travel writer who would serve as the president of the RI from 1865–73 (ODNB). Holland donated £40 each year from 1859, but did not succeed in attracting a large sum.
Please cite as “Tyndall2015,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on