To John Tyndall 4 February [1857]1
Down Bromley Kent
Feb. 4th
Dear Tyndall
I am very much obliged to you for your note. My only excuse for having troubled Huxley, was my very great curiosity to hear something more of your views.—2
I am as ignorant of mechanics as a pig as you will have perceived; but Glaciers for years & years have interested me greatly.3
I am so very glad to hear that you are continuing your experiments on ice; & I hope to hear that you will explain about the freezing together of ice under the freezing point.—
I can fancy a man so ignorant of nat. History as to advise Owen to compare a skull with a vertebra;4 on exactly same principle, I hope that you will squeeze together pieces of ice quite dry as far as water is concerned, but wetted with something which will not freeze. There is a valuable suggestion for you!!5
I wish you all sorts of good fortune in your most interesting investigations; & the Lord have mercy on you, when Forbes answers you is my prayer6
Most truly yours | C. Darwin
It is beautiful your having given cleavage to ice.7
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Desmond, Adrian. 1982. Archetypes and ancestors: palaeontology in Victorian London, 1850–1875. London: Blond & Briggs.
Rowlinson, J. S. 1971. The theory of glaciers. Notes and records of the Royal Society of London 26: 189–204.
Sharpe, Daniel. 1855. On the structure of Mont Blanc and its environs. [Read 15 November 1854.] Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 11: 11–26.
Smith, Crosbie. 1989. William Hopkins and the shaping of dynamical geology: 1830–60. British Journal for the History of Science 22: 27–52.
Volcanic islands: Geological observations on the volcanic islands, visited during the voyage of HMS Beagle, together with some brief notices on the geology of Australia and the Cape of Good Hope. Being the second part of the geology of the voyage of the Beagle, under the command of Capt. FitzRoy RN, during the years 1832 to 1836. By Charles Darwin. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1844.
Summary
CD is "as ignorant of mechanics as a pig", but glaciers have interested him greatly. Hopes to hear that JT’s experiments with ice will explain the freezing together of ice below the freezing point.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2046
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- John Tyndall
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 261.8: 2 (EH 88205940)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2046,” accessed on 16 August 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2046.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 6