From Francis Darwin [after March 1873]1
6 Q A
Dear Father
I thought that perhaps it might make a difference whether the extracts were made from leaves seeds or roots—
Ext | Hyoscyami | } | leaves |
Belladona | |||
Colchici— | corm | ||
Strammonii— | seeds2 |
Dalton’s physiology calls legumine, which is the nitrogenous element in peas & beans, “vegetable caseine” but says it is different from casein. De Caisne & Le Maout calls it casein as if it were the same animal casein—3 So I thought that Extr Strammonii might contain some casein or legumin—as there is a good large cotyledonous embryo—but I forgot that it wd be precipited by the alchohol used in making Ex Stramonii at least as far as I can make out fr Lauder Brun4 all varieties o f albumin are ppd. by e-alcohol—
Yrs affec | F D
I think I told you Extr Stram was with proof spirit, that is what I got fr Garrod,5 but the B Pharmacopeia says Proof Spirit Ether & Water—6 I suppose Garrod only mentions the Proof Sp as being the most important
Footnotes
Bibliography
British pharmacopœia (1867). London: Spottiswoode & Co. 1867.
Dalton, John Call. 1859. A treatise on human physiology; designed for the use of students and practitioners of medicine. Philadelphia: Blanchard and Lea.
Garrod, Alfred Baring. 1866. The essentials of materia medica and therapeutics. 2d edition. London: Walton and Maberly.
Summary
Has investigated whether it makes a difference if extracts [of alkaloid poisons] are made from leaves, seeds, or roots.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9199
- From
- Francis Darwin
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- London, Queen Anne St, 6
- Source of text
- DAR 58.1: 133
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9199,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9199.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 21