From Edward Blyth 17 September 1868
Septr. 17 /68—
My dear Sir,
I return the accompanying without delay, but the books have not yet come to hand.1 I managed to reach Westerham on the same day that I left you, slept there, and proceeded to Seven Oaks next morning, where I visted Knowle House & Park, & then back to town in the evening. I am very glad to learn that our visit did not overmuch fatigue you.2
I was in the coffee-room of a hotel last evening, & there I met a man of particularly intellectual appearance, & I soon found him to be a man of very superior attainments—a Swede by birth (quite Anglicized), and artist by profession. In the languages of Europe a thorough polyglot, & well versed in Anglo-Saxon, Russian, old Norse or Icelandic, with much to say about old Snorre Sturleson & the composition of the Edda, in the 12th Century of our era.3 Well, our talk was various, & he mentioned a curious fact which is quite new to me, though it may not be so to you; & if new to him I should like to have your wrangler son’s explanation of it.4 If you pour a liquid (water) in a thin stream from the mouth of a jug or otherwise, that column of water invariably twists spirally from right to left! Why is this? I hear that there was some discussion on the subject, & several theories broached, in the old Gentleman’s Magazine of 1818 or thereabouts, & again some ten years before; so I must hunt up Mr. Sylvanus Urban.5 I do not remember seeing it anywhere treated of.
Yours very truly, | E Blyth
Footnotes
Bibliography
Cambridge University calendar: The Cambridge University calendar. Cambridge: W. Page [and others]. 1796–1950.
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 directory of the six home counties: Post Office directory of the six home counties, viz., Essex, Herts, Kent, Middlesex, Surrey and Sussex. London: W. Kelly & Co. 1845–78.
Sackville-West, Victoria. 1922. Knole and the Sackvilles. London: W. Heinemann.
Snorri Sturluson. 1987. Edda. Translated by Anthony Faulkes. London: Dent.
Summary
Wonders if George Darwin can explain why a thin stream of water poured from a jug always spirals right to left.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-6372
- From
- Edward Blyth
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- unstated
- Source of text
- DAR 160: 221
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6372,” accessed on 19 October 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6372.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 16