To J. S. Burdon Sanderson 21 June [1874]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent.
June 21st
My dear Dr. Sanderson
I have received & am heartily obliged for the acids, the fibrin & 2 spec. of fibro-cartilage.— You do not know how valuable the fibrin has proved; both Drosera & Pinguicola have quickly dissolved every atom; so that I shd. have fallen into a grievous error & said that neither could wholly dissolve fibrin: no doubt what I saw left undissolved was impurity in the wretched fibrin which I before employed.2 Thus one great & horrid anomaly is removed. But there remains another, (if I understand rightly), viz that artificial digestive fluid dissolves the fibrous basis of decalcified bone.3 If this is so I must try Drosera again, as it is just possible that D. would not attack the tissue until it had removed every atom of the Phosphate & all free animal matter. The second anomaly is about gluten: I prepared it myself by washing it in water till I got very viscid pale brown substance; but there may have been some starch left, & how I am to ascertain this I know not.—4
I have just read with very great interest your 2d article on Dionæa: it is most wonderful that there shd. be that identity between muscle & a leaf.—5 I fear that you misunderstood me on the point: the aggregation of the protoplasm does not occur until sometime after the movement has occurred.6 But to look closer to this point has been a subject on my list for closer observation for some little time. Again aggregation occurs with no movement ensues, as when too strong a dose (viz 2 or 3 gr. of carbonate of A. to 1 oz) is given.—7
I do not think I expressed in my last note how very much I was pleased by your very honourable & encouraging notice of my work.8
Yours most sincerely | Ch. Darwin
P. S. Your man has made an odd mistake & has sent me vertebral bones with no cartilege; but Frank has now come home, & knows fibro-cartilege, & will get me some from a joint or from the Butchers’.—9
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Insectivorous plants. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1875.
Summary
Thanks for fibrin. Drosera and Pinguicula dissolve it thoroughly.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9504
- 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-1731-1-2)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9504,” accessed on 24 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9504.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 24 (Supplement) and 22