Record

HSF - Correspondence of Sir John Frederick William Herschel, and the Herschel family
- 3 - Letters of William James Herschel
  - 14 - Letters from William James Herschel largely to family members, with related correspondence

RefNo	HSF/3/14/1
Level	Item
Title	Letter from William James Herschel, Midnapore [Medinipur], to 'Dearest Father' [Sir John Frederick William Herschel]
Creator	Herschel; Sir William James; second baronet (1833-1917); British developer of fingerprinting and judge
Date	5 January 1866
Description	He begins by wishing his father a happy New Year before discussing a pamphlet of his father's, which he read to Emma and to his principal assistant Trevor Grant, the son of Sir John Peter Grant. He is glad that his father has not set it out as the hot argument of a controversialist, but that 'calm reason compels us to admit that there must be more than mere physical law in this our material universe'. He hopes that this will have an effect, if not a confession of error from those of an opposite view, then at least a check on the spread of materialistic views. He is sending it to a Professor of Literature at Calcutta [Kolkata] University, a relative of the Lawrences. He asks if his father intended to point out the strength of connection between force of matter and force of will, or that they were the same. He discusses this, compliments his father on the 'capital motto', and thanks him for the article on light. He has mentioned to an engineer the reduced estimate for the velocity of light and the consequent reduction in estimates of the Earth-Solar distance. He gives a comical account to the [unnamed] engineer's reactions to other scientific statistics. He refers to Alick's article on winds [Alexander Stewart Herschel], as being very compressed, and lauds an experiment involving ink on a globe. He thinks that the insurance offices should give Alex a commission 'to examine the relation between the annual level and temperature of the waters in the Mexican gulf and their own annual profits'. William is preparing for sharp taxes when Massey brings out a budget. William heard from Sir John Lawrence that more taxes must be raised, and he notes his own role, 'making my first significant experiments in it'.
Extent	5p.
Format	Manuscript
PhysicalDescription	Ink on paper
AccessStatus	Open

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