FROM THE HON. J. W. STRUTT (Lord Rayleigh).

                                                               Cambridge, 14th February 1871.

When I came here last Friday I found every one talking about the new professorship, and hoping that you would  come. Thomson, it seems, has definitely declined. . . . There is no one here in the least fit for the post. What is    wanted by most who know anything about it is not so much a lecturer as a mathematician who has actual  experience in experimenting, and who might direct the energies of the younger Fellows and bachelors into a proper channel. There must be many who would be willing to work under a competent man, and who, while learning themselves, ould materially assist him. . . . I hope you may be induced to come; if not, I don't know who it is to be. Do not trouble to answer me about this, as I believe others have written to you about it.