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Is sorry to have left Cambridge. Tells of drinking habits and other activities. Gives humorous advise to Whittaker to study hard

Contents:

1. Mss of major part of Memoirs of the Analytical Society, Cambridge, 1813. (Not all extant)

Tells of hectic social life interspersed with some study. Asks for news of Cambridge and to be remembered to friends

Gives jocular advice on study and women. Tells of mutual acquaintances. Will visit Cambridge soon

Discusses an epigram of Byron's, the current state of society and religious belief and notes the unrest abroad in the country. Exhorts the recipient to keep mentally active and states that mathematics and music take up all his time

Asks for the 3rd Volume of Lacroix (1) and as many numbers of the Ecole Polytechnic as possible to be requisitioned from Babbage's (2) Master and sent to Herschel as soon as possible. Gives news of mutual acquaintance, Graham, and his father. Discusses the printing of the 'A.S.'

(1) An elementary treatise on the differential and integral calculus by S. F. Lacroix, translated by Herschel from the French and printed in 1816.

(2) Charles Babbage the mathematician

Asks Whittaker not to send all the volumes of Ecole Polytechnic, but only the relevant ones. Thanks Whittaker for his letter and will write as soon as he has time to compose a suitable letter.

Also attached is autographed letter from Herschel to Greenwood. Asks Greenwood jokingly to compose a piece of music in 5/4 time. Tells of his musical mania. Asks for a recommendation for a musical text book

Informs Whittaker that books Herschel has asked for have not arrived

Contents:

1. Consideration of various points in analysis. Published (with alterations) in Philosophical Transactions (1814). 25 numbered pages.

2. On the action of crystals with two axes on homogeneous light and on the cause of the deviation from Newton's scale in the tints which they develop on exposure to a polarized ray, Philosophical Transactions 110 (1820, 45-100. Read 23 December 1819. Pages of observations and/or calculations 'with some duplicate and some miscellaneous papers'. Two drafts, included a few corrected proof sheets, of this most important paper and some notes to the printer.

3. On aberration. A draft with some proof sheets, with comparatively few corrections and annotations, but possibly important ones.

4. Observations of the apparent distances and positions of double and triple stars made in the years 1821, 1822, 1823, Philosophical Transactions 114 (1824), part 3, 1-21.

5. On the separation of iron from other metals. Draft MSS for Philosophical Transactions 111 (1821), 293-9. Read 5 April 1821.

6. MSS notes for 1824 Bakerian Lecture to the Royal Society on electricity (c. 15 – 20 leaves, heavily corrected).

7. On the development of exponential functions together with several new theorems relating to finite differences (2 copies, c. 30 pages each).

8. On the general laws of the isochromatic bands in 'chrystals', 17 April 1819 (never published). This is interleaved in the main Philosophical Transaction article, the pagination of which is most confused. There are apparently only 4 sheets, both sides each, of a very rough draft with unfinished sketches

Laughs at Whittaker's expense about his forthcoming examinations. Asks for any news on Cambridge to be sent as soon as possible. Tells of decision to become a lawyer. Gives humourous advise respecting Whittaker's conduct in the Senate House. Notes an equation he has solved