To J. S. Burdon Sanderson 21 August [1874]1
⟨Bassett, Southampton.⟩
⟨August 21.⟩
⟨My dear Dr. Sanderson⟩
I ⟨ line⟩ or will ⟨ line⟩ Germany. ⟨ line⟩ having a ⟨ line⟩ Southampton, & return home next Monday.— I shall soon work in some new facts in my Chapt. on digestion by Drosera,2 & I want to ask one question ⟨1 word⟩ you can let me ⟨ line⟩ ⟨4 or 5 lines⟩ suggested ⟨ line⟩ne & was ⟨ line⟩ted. But when not thus treated, it was never completely digested, & the residue does not consist solely of starch. Now in your experiments with artificial digestive fluid, ⟨ line⟩ ⟨interlineation at top of page⟩ any of the fatty acids did you find the gluten which has not been soaked in hydrochloric acid was digested slowly or imperfectly?3 One other result has surprised me, viz the fibro-cartilage is not digested: my son Frank, made with pepsin & H. acid some artificial digestive fluid, which at the temperature of the room well digested fibrin, but would not digest fibro-cartilage, though it rendered it hyaline & swollen, just as did Drosera.—4
You must read Hooker’s address to Bot. Section at Belfast, & see what a magnificent digester is Nepenthes.—5 I have been almost driven mad by Utricularia which catches no end of entomostraca, but cannot digest, & I believe, though I cannot prove it, that it absorbs the products of putrefaction.6
Yours most sincerely | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Insectivorous plants. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1875.
Leftwich, A. W. 1973. A dictionary of zoology. 3d edition. London: Constable.
Summary
Reports difficulties in experiments on digestion of fibro-cartilage. Asks about JSBS’s experiments with artificial digestive fluids.
JSBS must read Hooker’s address at Belfast [Rep. BAAS 44 (1874): 103–16] to see what a magnificent digester Nepenthes is.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9605
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- John Scott Burdon Sanderson, 1st baronet
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- University of British Columbia Library, Rare Books and Special Collections (Darwin - Burdon Sanderson letters RBSC-ARC-1731-1-25); DAR 147: 415 (copy)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp inc & damaged C 1p
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9605,” accessed on 16 July 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9605.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22