XL] FAILURE OF HEALTH. 379 



globe in hand from time to time for several weeks, on 



which I now and then lay out my small available stock 



of thinking power. The end of this week I have a 



examination, in which, however, I receive ample 



assistance from my efficient coadjutor, Mr. B. Stewart. 



And now I shall make no more apologies, nor should 



1 have said so much but that it tells so much of my 



! am in fair health ; no indisposition, but little 



strength.' 



To the Same. 



'EDINBURGH, February 28^, 1858. 



*. . . I expect, however, shortly an electro-magnetic 

 coil from America such has never yet been seen in Europe, 

 to give eight-inch sparks in air from electricity excited 

 by only three galvanic pairs. 



v -ly own speculations have lain in a different line, 

 connected with a more favourite subject of my own, the 

 climatology of the globe. I expect to be able to deduce 

 some interesting laws of a numerical kind/ 



To the Same. 



1 BRIDGE OP ALLAN, April 26th, 1858. 



' . . . I am of course much interested in the Lord 

 te's Scottish University Bill, though the House of 

 unions rather uncivilly indicated a contrary feeling by 

 .ing all the time lie was explaining it, so that "not one 

 iplete sentence ivaehed the reporters' gallery." I pre- 

 sume the object to be to appoint a commission with lar-v 

 powers, as at Oxford and Cambridge. As I am now entirely 

 passive on such matters, I look on, though with nearly 

 as sincere iui -n -st , with none of the painful anxiety which 

 vails when one {<<]> ;i n-sj.onsilnlity to act to one'fl 

 utmost, knowing how little the ]>n>l>;il>le eflect of acting 

 will I.e. I probably tnld you, when I wrote' last, that 1 

 eason t<> i with my class lasl winter. 



It was one of the most dili^-rnt, ju-niicient, and best con- 

 ducted which I ev. r la disappointment, to 

 e, to break d 'Miini-iit U fore the ieasioD 



