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Lacock - Is not able to offer any introductions at Rome, for the only family he knows of is that of Mrs John Spedding; encloses the remarks on Assyrian inscriptions he could not find when he last wrote; has been conducting mathematical researches, thought he had found a clue to the solution of Fermat's theorem, which he discusses and which he sent on to Professor Kelland, who admired it.

Rome - JDF is pleased he decided to spend the winter abroad, and praises his Edinburgh colleagues (Thomas Henderson and Philip Kelland) who offered to fill in for him while he was absent. At Naples he saw small scale continual eruption within the crater of Vesuvius: 'I saw lava flowing and had an opportunity of comparing it in various states with the conditions of a glacier'. His findings are generally favourable to his glacier theory and he has communicated his observations in a letter to the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Edinburgh - Thanks WW for his work on induction in answer to John S. Mill ['Of Induction, with Especial Reference to Mr. J. Stuart Mill's System of Logic', 1850]. Further to their work on revising the recommendations of the mathematics and physics section of the BAAS [see JDF to WW,12 Dec. 1849], JDF thinks it important that new experiments in the area of heat should be devised - as suggested by Philip Kelland's report 'On the Theory of Heat' (1841). JDF is undecided whether he will remain this year for the BAAS meeting, since he is very keen to embark on a continental trip. Murchison [Roderick Murchison] has written to him with suggestions on how best to spend the recent £1000 left to the Royal Society.