From Joseph Fayrer 17 June 1874
16 Granville Place | Portman Square | London W
17 June 1874
Dear Sir
My friend Dr Lauder Brunton told me today that he thought you would be glad to have some Cobra poison for an experiment1 I therefore take the liberty of enclosing you a small quantity of that very active agent. It has recently been sent to me from Calcutta—and is quite recent. I think you will find of a grain dissolved in water injected under the skin sufficient to destroy a rabbit. That quantity injected into the jugular vein of a large rabbit today killed a large rabbit in 60 Seconds. A more diluted solution will probably answer the purpose you require.
I daresay you know that this is a subject I have been investigating in India—and since I returned to England have been continuing the enquiry in conjunction with Dr Brunton2
Believe me Your’s very faithfully | J. Fayrer.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Fayrer, Joseph. 1872. The Thanatophidia of India: being a description of the venomous snakes of the Indian Peninsula, with an account of the influence of their poison on life and a series of experiments. London: J. and A. Churchill.
Insectivorous plants. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1875.
Summary
Sends CD some cobra poison for his experiments.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9497
- From
- Joseph Fayrer, 1st baronet
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- London, Granville Place, 16
- Source of text
- DAR 164: 108
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9497,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9497.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22