Stuk 116 - James David Forbes to William Whewell

Edinburgh - Thanks WW for the tidal papers. JDF thinks of the mechanical theory of heat 'pretty much as you do. I intended to speak of it with great caution, and it seems to me that I have done so. I believe that there is a basis of fact for it or for part of it'. JDF expects that 'Thomson [William Thomson] and his friends' will be annoyed that he did not give Joule [James Prescott Joule] a section to himself: 'Thomson (admirer as he is of Faraday) would certainly not allow to see [Faraday] superior to Joule, about whom he is, to my conception, scarcely rational'. Has WW sent his suggestions to the Parliamentary Committee of the BAAS about promotion of science by the state?: 'I have recommended (selfishly no doubt) the endowing of existing professorships of science; but (not selfishly) that they should begin with those of Cambridge and Oxford'.