One hundred years ago
Professor Tyndall died on Monday at his house at Haslemere, in the seventy- fourth year of his age, his death being caused by a very sad accident in his wife's mistake of a bottle of chloral for sulphate of magnesia. For many hours every effort was made to get rid of the chloral and to inject ether, which par- tially succeeded; but in the end the Pro- fessor's weakened frame sank under the depressing effect of the chloral. Every one will feel the deepest sympathy with his wife, whose error was caused by her ignorance that a second bottle of chloral had come in without her knowledge. Professor Tyndall was born at Leighlin Bridge near Carlow, in 1820, and his father, poor as he was, kept his son at school till he was nineteen. At first he joined the Ordnance Survey, but later he went to study chemistry at the Uni- versity of Marburg, in Hesse-Cassel, under Bunsen, the discoverer of spec- trum analysis; and about the year 1853 he was appointed Professor of Physics in the Royal Institution, and after Fara- day's death, Resident Director, an appointment he retained until his retire- ment in 1887.
The Spectator 9 December 1893
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