VISIT OF HELMHOLTZ 197 



to see you, and where you may learn (at its head-quarters) the mysteries of GOLF ! 

 I have secured a house there, and so has my brother-in-law, Crum Brown, for the 

 months of August and September. It appears that Huxley also has done the same, 

 so that we may take to scientific discussions in the intervals of exercise. 



I forgot to say that, with us, there are but rarely masts in canal-boats, and 

 therefore the point of attachment is not usually in the axis of the boat. Perhaps 

 you might put into the German translation the qualifying clause "provided the 

 rope be not attached to a point in the axis of the boat," which is not necessary 

 for an English reader. 



All your other surmises are correct. I have told Vieweg to publish by instal- 

 ments if he likes. I hope you will write a Preface to the first instalment, so that 

 the weight of your authority may be brought to bear upon the reception of the 

 new terms introduced 1 . 



While the first volume of the Treatise was shaping itself to a finish, the 

 authors had also in mind the more elementary book for the use of the ordinary 

 student attending the Natural Philosophy classes in Edinburgh and Glasgow. 

 The intention was to make large use of the same material for the two kinds 

 of book, the less mathematical portions being common to both. 



There is fairly strong evidence that Division i, including Kinematics, 

 Dynamical Laws and Principles, Experience, and Measures and Instruments 

 was to be in the first instance Tail's domain ; while Thomson was to be 

 mainly responsible for Division n, namely, Abstract Dynamics, including 

 Statics, Attractions and Elasticity. Tait very soon put together sufficient 

 material to form a small pamphlet which he printed for the sake of his 

 students in 1863. In the Edinburgh Calendar for the session 1862-3, he 

 had already inserted the following optimistic reference, " as a text-book on 

 the general subject of the lectures, in case the forthcoming volume by Professors 

 Thomson and Tait did not appear before Christmas, one of the following may 

 be named, etc." Next year's Calendar announced that " In October 1863 there 

 will be published the first volume of a Treatise on Natural Philosophy by 



1 As indicated in this letter, Helmholtz did not reach Scotland in time to be present 

 at the British Association Meeting. He spent some days with Tait in St Andrews, but, 

 unlike Huxley, did not yield to the fascinations of golf. In a letter to his wife of date 

 August 20, 1871, Helmholtz gave his impressions of St Andrews life: "St Andrews hat 

 eine prachtige Bai, feine Sandflache, die dann mil einer scharfen Kante in grime Grasflachen 

 iibergeht....Es ist grosses Leben von Badegasten, eleganten Damen und Kindern, Gentlemen 

 in sporting Costiimen, welche golfing spielen. . . . Mr Tait kennt hier nichts anderes als 

 golfing. Ich musste gleich mit, die ersten Schlage gelangen mir, nachher traf ich entweder 

 nur die Erde Oder die Luft....Tait ist eine eigenthiimliche Art von Wildem Mann, lebt 

 hier, wie er sagt, nur fur seine Muskeln, und erst heute am Sonntag, wo er nicht spielen 

 durfte, aber auch nicht in die Kirche ging, war er zu verniinftigen Gegenstanden zu bringen." 



