To J. S. Burdon Sanderson 9 October 1874
Down, | Beckenham, Kent.
Oct 9. 74
My dear Dr Sanderson
I am going to beg your opinion & information on one point if you can give it. I am finally working up my long chapter on digestion by Drosera.1 I find that fibrin, areolar tissue, the fibrous basis of bone, & gelatin all agree in being easily dissolved by the secretion, but none of them excite the leaves much, incomparably less than meat, albumen, &c. Fibro-cartilage behaves in the same way excepting that it is never thoroughly liquified.2 Now what I want to know is whether these substances viz:— fibrin, areolar tissue, the fibrous basis of bone, gelatin, & fibro-cartilage are chemically or physiologically allied. I mean by physiologically allied, their action on animals to which they are given as food; for instance is it known whether a dog would perish as soon when fed on fibrin as on gelatin? I should be grateful for any scrap of information on this head. You will see that I speak of the “fibrous basis of bone”, is this a correct expression? In almost every page of my MS I feel how much I owe to you
Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Insectivorous plants. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1875.
OED: The Oxford English dictionary. Being a corrected re-issue with an introduction, supplement and bibliography of a new English dictionary. Edited by James A. H. Murray, et al. 12 vols. and supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1970. A supplement to the Oxford English dictionary. 4 vols. Edited by R. W. Burchfield. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1972–86. The Oxford English dictionary. 2d edition. 20 vols. Prepared by J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1989. Oxford English dictionary additional series. 3 vols. Edited by John Simpson et al. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1993–7.
Summary
Has been testing the digestive powers of Drosera; wants to know whether a group of substances that elicit similar responses are related.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9669
- 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-1731-1-19)
- Physical description
- LS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9669,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9669.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22