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St Mildred's Court - JWL was going to send WW 'the Liverpool results of Parallax when I found that Mr Dessiou had already done so'. Dessiou also promises to send JWL the declination. They will at once be available to yourself, Poisson and others. The Dutch tides might be discussed if the BAAS would supply funds. JWL considers a year's observations ample for the sun's menstrual inequality. Can WW get the curves of the object glasses belonging to the large telescope at the observatory.

St James's Place - JWL is sorry WW has not got the time to take up the subject of tides: 'you would do so much better than myself'. JWL has been preparing his paper for the press and at the Royal Society ['On the Tides in the Port of London', Phil. Trans. of the Royal Society, 1831]: 'I should like to attempt a Theory of the Moon'. Dessiou [Joseph Foss Dessiou] is producing tables showing the effect of the changes in the moon's declination and on the time and height of high water. Mr Pond [John Pond] has promised JWL funds from the Nautical Almanac to enable him to write a paper on this subject. He has resigned the Vice Presidency at the Royal Society.

JWL has received WW's letter plus Quetelet's [Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet] papers. He is sorry that WW cannot attend the Committee and thinks his suggestions excellent - reports on papers and a yearly report. If we had an exact copy of the constitutions of all Foreign Societies, we could graft the best aspect of each onto ours. The Council of the Royal Society have given him permission to employ Mr Walker to draw a map of the world under his direction to chart the progress of the tide, unfortunately 'Capt. Beaufort [Francis Beaufort] will not allow him to consult the Charts at the admiralty for fear he shall trouble them', so he has had to use books of sailing directions. Regarding WW's problem in biometry, JWL does not think 'we possess sufficient information with respect to the ages at which marriages take place and the intervals which lapse after marriage before children are born to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion with respect to the influence a general retardation of marriages would have upon the increase of the population'. Mr Dessiou [Joseph Foss Dessiou] has nearly completed his work on the tides and JWL has seen some of his results. He has begun work on a Physical Astronomy paper.

Letter of 10 Jan. 1833 includes a letter of introduction for William Whewell dated 16 Jan. 1833 from Dessiou to Thomas Atkinson.