| Description | She is grieved that Edward has been suffering so much; attacks are difficult to shake off, and the effect on eyesight distressing. She fears his rambles have led him to ground which gave the ague, but she hopes he is gaining strength. She thanks him for remembering her request and for taking the trouble to get information on the spectrum of steel in different states in manufactories. It will be put to good use by able men such as Professors [Edward] Frankland and [John] Tyndall. She thanks him for scientific news and wishes should could attend lectures at the Royal Institution. Tyndall is full of original ideas, praising his experiments on radiant heat on attentuated gases. She thinks that if Kater devoted hmself to science, he would make discoveries, having seen experiments from his infancy. They have been in Geneva for a month, to see her son and his wife. Mary has the use of several libraries for the book she is writing, although the writing is slow. She comments on the severity of the winter, with people dying of cold in Florence, and snow lying in Rome. She praises Kater's mother, a great loss to Edward and his brother, and concludes by asking if he will come to Italy next summer. |