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- 583 - Copy diaries of John Frederick William Herschel

RefNo	MS/583/33
Previous numbers	MS/585
Level	File
Title	Copy diary of John Frederick William Herschel, transcribed by Louisa Gordon
Date	2 January - 28 December 1867
Date	1910
Description	Family transcription of Sir John Herschel's original diary. The volume describes Herschel's scientific and social life, with meteorological and a few astronomical observations. The diary commences with various family movements and Herschel noting that he has entered the second stage of filling in Ent, the charts of naked eye rings of stars. On 22 January 'Laid in The Milky Way on the index chart' and by 28 January he has sent by rail to the Royal Astronomical Society two parcels of chart triangles with a paper explaining them. He writes to [Urbain] Le Verrier on meteors, 29 January and has communications with publishers, Strahan and Smith Elder & Company, 31 January-15 February. He accidentally rediscovers a parcel containing [Giovanni] Sciaparelli's four letters to [Angelo] Secchi on meteorlites on 25 February. On 6 March, Herschel observes an eclipse of the Sun through clouds. The next day is his seventy-fifth birthday. On 4 April, 'Mrs Cameron came with her maid Mary Ryan & an immense Van load of Photographic apparatus. Camera Baths Glasses Sensiting apparatus Developing appartus and Chemicals!!!'. Intense days of photography follow until 8 April, when 'Mrs Cameron & "Mary Ryan" left full of photographs & with hands as black as coals'. On 15 April Herschel completes his Latin translation of Friedrich Schiller's 'Der Spaziergang' and he copies this by cyanotype on 12 June. By 6 May Herschel is observing the Sun, noting the first sunspot for a long time on 1 June. He sends a copy of his translation of the Iliad to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, via Miss Karth, who travels to New York, on 26 June. Herschel composes a referee's report on [Lawrence Parsons] Lord Oxmandown's paper on the Orion nebula, 12-13 July. Herschel complains of lumbago at the period, but notes the case of a servant who had 'An extraordinary case of what Mr Young calls smallpox but which seems to me to be the Irish "Black Death" occurred to the brother of one of our servant girls. His knee swelled then it ran up his thigh & side to his head turned black & he died in 24 hours'. On 21 August Herschel observes Jupiter without its satellites, with one moon just emerging from behind the planet. He returns the proofs of [Mary] Somerville's work to John Murray on 23 August. A nineteen year old maidservant, Maria Wampton dies on 9 October, despite Herschel's efforts to save her life by instructing the servants to bathe her in hot water. A post mortem examination the next day declares the cause of death to be an ulceration of the stomach. Herschel records 'table-turning' at Mountfield - 'Lady Mary [Egerton] is a believer!!' on 14 October. Various notes of family movements follow and the year ends with Herschel triumphantly restarting the watch which had refused to go for the previous three or four months. With a note on the first page '1867.'
Extent	40p.
Format	Manuscript
PhysicalDescription	On paper, loosely bound with pink legal tape
AccessStatus	Open

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