TYNDALL AND HIS AMERICAN VISIT.
505
One of the consequences of that first interview with Tyndall appears in the following extract from a letter of my brother's written to Mr. Spencer in March, 1863. He says: "I received the advance sheets of Prof. Tyndall's book on Heat, and beg of you to express to him my sincere thanks for the kindness. The Appletons will issue it at the earliest moment, the cuts being already nearly all re-engraved. It is a very fascinating and altogether remarkable book, and it will be a pure pleasure for me to work for its circulation. It can not fail to have a good sale."
A letter of Prof. Tyndall's to my brother relating to the publication of his work on Heat, and bearing date April 29, 1863, is the earliest one in my possession. It is as follows:
I am now giving a short course of lectures on Sound 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.