To J. T. Moggridge 10 March 1873
Down Beckenham
Mar. 10. 1873
My dear Sir
I am very much obliged for the seeds. I had some vague reasons for suspecting that Ammonia vapour hastened and acid vapours retarded the germination of seeds; so after reading your interesting account I resolved to make this trial, which is a wild-goose chase. I have obtained formic acid for the experiment; but as we are going to London for a month, I shall be able to do nothing until our return.1
I am glad to hear of your spider observations: if you can state positively that your young spiders had never seen an old spider or one of their own webs, I think every one of their actions ought to be recorded. Your paper would then make a worthy complement to Mr. Spalding’s admirable article in Macmillan’s Mag. for Feb. on blinded chickens.2
With many thanks, my dear Sir, | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Moggridge, John Traherne. 1873. Harvesting ants and trap-door spiders: notes and observations on their habits and dwellings. London: L. Reeve & Co.
Moggridge, John Traherne. 1874. Supplement to Harvesting ants and trap-door spiders: with specific descriptions of the spiders by the Rev. O. Pickard-Cambridge. London: L. Reeve & Co.
Spalding, Douglas Alexander. 1873. Instinct. With original observations on young animals. Macmillan’s Magazine 27 (1872–3): 282–93.
Summary
Much obliged for seeds. Will expose seeds to chemical vapours.
Comments on JTM’s spider experiments.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-8805
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- John Traherne Moggridge
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 146: 379
- Physical description
- C 1p
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 8805,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8805.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 21