From John Tyndall 2 February 1876
Royal Institution of Great Britain
2nd. Feby 1876.
My dear Darwin
I hope I am not wrong in counting on such a fraction of your sympathy as will justify me on making known to you myself the contemplated change in my life.
Rumour has probably already told you that Louisa, eldest daughter of Lord Claud Hamilton, has chosen to forsake her own beautiful home and share my modest rooms here at the Royal Institution.1 This simple fact yields an indication of her character— That I have learned to know under every variety of circumstance. On Alp and glacier; in mountain huts; by the sea margin, among the fair fields of England, and in her own home. Strong, tender, entirely womanly, utterly selfrenouncing—these are what I have seen her to be long before a dream of our present relation crossed my thoughts. She is a noble and capable worker, and I firmly hope that she and I will do some good work here together.
My investigation has been a little broken in upon by this matter. But I have one great section of it fairly rounded off. I am resuming it. To my regret I shall be forced to go into the whole history of Bastian’s work, dealing with his logic as well as with his experiments.2 I was disposed to deal with him in the tenderest manner; but his recent exhibition in the Times shows me that a far different treatment will be needed.3
The change in the Medical Journals is radical— They see that the end of the nonsense which they have so long countenanced is nigh.4
Give my kindest regards to Mrs. Darwin & to your sons & daughters | and believe me ever | Yours faithfully | John Tyndall
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Dawson, Gowan. 2007. Darwin, literature and Victorian respectability. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Post Office London directory: Post-Office annual directory. … A list of the principal merchants, traders of eminence, &c. in the cities of London and Westminster, the borough of Southwark, and parts adjacent … general and special information relating to the Post Office. Post Office London directory. London: His Majesty’s Postmaster-General [and others]. 1802–1967.
Strick, James. 2000. Sparks of life: Darwinism and the Victorian debates over spontaneous generation. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Summary
Tells CD of his engagement to Louisa, eldest daughter of Lord Claud Hamilton.
His investigations [into spontaneous generation] continue. He will deal with Bastian’s work [The modes of origin of lowest organisms (1871)].
The medical journals see that the end of the nonsense they have so long countenanced is nigh.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10377
- From
- John Tyndall
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Royal Institution
- Source of text
- DAR 106: C20–1
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10377,” accessed on 28 September 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10377.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 24