| 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 Herschel writing to [John Henry] Griesbach to thanks him for a book and suggesting improvements to musical instruments; and to Murray about [Mary] Somerville's book. He works on a general history of double stars from 17 January and corrects proofs of Somerville's book over the same period, double star work continuing into February and throughout to September. On 14 February he sends a note to [George Gabriel] Stokes on Lord Oxmandham's Orion nebula paper for the Royal Society. From 20 February he again observes sunspots. Herschel describes the experience of a fortification spectrum on 24 February and on 5 May receives Hubert Airy's descripton of the phenomenon, coincidentally experiencing another episode later that day and on 9 May. Cyrus Field visits Herschel on 23 April, 'a first-rate American and deserves to be an Englishman'. On 28 May he sends to publishers his paper on musical scales and canto 1 of a translation of Dante. Herschel notes intense smoke from London advancing up to his house on 30 May, 'The whole Southern horizon is shrouded'. He attends the marriage of his daughter Amelia to Sir Thomas Francis Wade in Westminster Abbey on 28 July, spending time in London including viewing Pellatt and Green's Falcon Glassworks at Blackfriars. At Collingwood House on 5 November Herschel rises before dawn to see a transit of Mercury. He continues working on double stars in mid-November and into December. The year ends with bronchial problems and doses of laudanum.
With a note on the cover sheet '1868.' |