To John Tyndall 20 October [1875]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
Oct. 20th
My dear Tyndall
Your tube with the solution dated Oct. 16th. was quite clean at 8o 30’ am on the 19th, but at 4o 30’ p.m was slightly muddy. At 8o am today (20th) it was more muddy & contained many Bacteria (& apparently vibrios) in lively movement. I believe that this is all that you wanted to hear.—.2
I very greatly enjoyed your visit & the talking has done me no harm.—
Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Strick, James. 2000. Sparks of life: Darwinism and the Victorian debates over spontaneous generation. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Summary
JT’s tube [of boiled infusion] dated 16 Oct was clear on 19th; on the 20th it was muddy and contained many bacteria in living movement.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10207
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- John Tyndall
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Rensselaer Libraries, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Gerald and Sue Friedman manuscript collection MC 72 Box 1)
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10207,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10207.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 23