OUR PORTRAIT GALLERY.

SECOND SERIES.-No. 36.

PROFESSOR TYNDALL, LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S.

A MARKED feature of the present time is the importance attached to Science, both as a source of national prosperity and a means of mental cultivation. Together with art it constitutes a distinct Government department. Within the last few years several expeditions for scientific purposes have been undertaken by Government. The annual Parliamentary grant to the Royal Society for special scientific investigation has been increased from £1,000 to £5,000.

The Commissioners of the Great Exhibition of 1851 have resolved to devote part of the funds at their disposal to the erection of buildings and the foundation of scholarships for the study of science. A Royal Commission has had the whole subject of scientific education under its consideration. Valuable prizes in the shape of fellowships and exhibitions, are offered at the ancient Universities, and by private munificence, with a view to encourage the cultivation of science, and new colleges and professorships have been created in various parts of the country for the purpose of carrying it on. The course of education at the public schools has been altered so as to include science among its essential parts. Lectures, classes, and examinations have also been instituted for the scientific instruction of the middle and lower classes. In short, it may safely be said, that never before did science enjoy so large a share of general consideration in this country.

Probably no one has contributed more to this important result than Professor Tyndall. In his admirable lectures and writings science is set forth in so clear and attractive a light as to render it highly esteemed by all persons of average intelligence and education. With convincing power he insists, whenever he can get an opportunity, on the value of scientific study as a discipline of the mind, and in his own person affords a most striking confirmation of his statements. Thus both his teaching and example have combined to make science better known and more

highly valued, to awaken a general interest in its researches, and to extend the application of its methods and the cultivation of its spirit.

There is good evidence for assuming that Professor Tyndall may claim kinship with William Tyndall, the well-known martyr, who was burnt to death, in 1536, for his zeal in translating the Bible. Family tradition and documents cited by Mr. Greenfield show that, about two centuries ago, some members of the family, who were engaged in cloth manufacture, crossed over from the vales of Gloucestershire, where a few clothiers' mills may still be seen, to the county of Wexford in Ireland. Particular mention is made of a William Tyndall, who removed thither in the year 1670. Along the eastern coast of Ireland, in Wexford, Waterford, Carlow, and Dublin, are scattered a few descendants of these men, some in easy circumstances and honourable position, others less favoured by fortune.

William Tyndall, the grandfather of Professor Tyndall, possessed a small landed property in Wexford, from which county he removed to Carlow, taking up his abode in the little town-or rather village-of Leighlin Bridge, on the banks of the river Barrow, where he added to his means by acting as agent to William Steuart, Esq., of Steuart's Lodge. His eldest son was John Tyndall, who married very young and had five children, three of whom died in infancy, the remaining two being Professor Tyndall, and his sister now residing with the widow of Dr. John Tyndall, in Gorey, county Wexford.

William Tyndall's small landed property would have naturally descended to his eldest son, and from him to the Professor. But both William Tyndall and his son John were men of warm temper and unbending will, and a difference of opinion on some point not now known, was so aggravated by these peculiarities of temper and character, that the father on his deathbed revoked his former will, and left the property to two sons of a second marriage.

The Professor's father was still young when the Irish Constabulary force was first established, and as his worldly prospects were anything but bright, he joined it, and was attached to it for several years.

It has been mentioned that he had a quick temper, but it is right to add that this, throughout his life, did not prevent his gaining the respect. and confidence of all who were acquainted with him. He was a man of singular ability and rare integrity. An ardent politician, he was an Orangeman, and a member of the Brunswick Club. He had in his possession a fragment of a flag which fluttered at the battle of the Boyne. By unreserved intercourse he inspired his son with the same sentiments as he entertained on political and other subjects. He used often to talk to him about Newton

"That sun of Science, whose meridian ray

Kindled the gloom of Nature into day."

In the last edition of the "Fragments of Science," we find the following reference at p. 555 :

:

"Born in Ireland, I, like my predecessors for many generations, was taught to hold my own against the Church of Rome. I had a father whose memory ought to be to me a stay, and an example of unbending rectitude and purity of life. The small stock to which he belonged, were scattered with various fortunes along that Eastern rim of Leinster, from Wexford upwards, to which they crossed from the Bristol Channel. My father was the poorest of them. Socially low, but mentally and morally high and independent, by his own inner energies and affinities he obtained a knowledge of history which would put mine to shame; while the whole of the controversy between Protestantism and Romanism was at his fingers' ends.

"At the present moment the works and characters which occupied him, come as far-off recollections to my mind. Claude and Bossuet, Chillingworth and Nott, Tillotson, Jeremy Taylor, Challoner, and Milner, Pope and McGuire, and others whom I have forgotten, or whom it is needless to name. Still this man, so charged with the ammunition of controversy, was so respected by his Catholic fellow-townsmen, that one and all put up their shutters when he died."

Professor Tyndall is now 56 years of age. He was born Leighlin Bridge, of which only a fragment now remains. His father's chief anxiety was to secure for him the best possible education. Hence he was careful to send him to as good a school as he could command, and he kept him at school till he was nineteen years old. Unfortunately, the best schools open to him were exceedingly defective. The boy, too, in his earlier school days, was far fonder of play than of work, so that he learnt very little. He, however, acquired some physical accomplishments which have since stood him in good stead in his Alpine and other tours. He became a swift runner, a fair boxer, an expert swimmer, an adept at climbing, and successful at hockey.

For his first really scientific knowledge, Professor Tyndall is indebted to Mr. John Conwill, formerly an able teacher in one of the Irish National Schools. With him were studied the rudiments of algebra, the elements of plane and solid geometry, trigonometry, and conic sections. Bishop Elrington's edition of Euclid was Tyndall's first school book on this subject. To this succeeded the treatises of Lardner and Wallace, which were both completely mastered. The first work in arithmetic which was put into his hands, was a treatise by Professor Thomson, the father of the present celebrated Sir William Thomson.

With Mr. Conwill, young Tyndall became an expert at solving problems, the solutions often being worked out upon the snow during the winters of 1837 and 1838, while returning with his teacher from school.