Dear Mr Darwin

I thank you most sincerely for your kind letter and your offer of assistance to D^r. Ferrier¹   There is at present no subscription list as the British Medical Association have taken up the case and ought to pay the expenses. Should these make such a call upon the funds of the Association as to interfere with its other objects the whole or part of the expenses will be paid by those who have subscribed to a guarantee fund. To this fund there are already a number of subscribers whose names are taken by Professor Gerald Yeo² one of the secretaries of the Physiological Society.— They have not subscribed a definite sum but have simply fixed a maximum which they will subscribe if necessary on the understanding that only so much as is required shall be asked from each subscriber in proportion to his subscription. It is proposed to send by and by a list of the most prominent members of this guarantee fund to the Times & other papers and not only every scientific man but every member of the medical profession will rejoice to see your name in the list. D^r. Ferrier has been quite worn out by the worry of this prosecution or as it might well be called persecution & has gone down to Shanklin for a couple of days.³ He returns this afternoon and I have sent on your letter to await his arrival knowing as I do that it will be to him like cold water to a thirsty soul.

I am greatly interested by your observations on worms which you so kindly sent me.⁴ The function of the calciferous glands excreting waste substance which is utilised in digestion is like that of the liver & gives another example of the circulation of certain substances from one organ of the body to another like the entero-hepatic & gastro-salivary.⁵

I could not help being much struck with the resemblance between the calciferous glands in worms & the tonsils in man. Their position is similar, they are supplied very richly with blood and they are very liable to the formation of calcareous concretions within them in worms & in man. The use of the tonsils in man is a puzzle. They are liable to enlargement and interfere with the development of the chest in children & to inflammation in adults. The only result of their excision seems to be the benefit of the individual by the removal of a nuisance. I have had charge of the throat department at S^t. Bartholomew’s Hospital for several years and my experience of tonsils & their diseases led me to think that they must be a survival of some organ once useful perhaps but now rather injurious. I did not know how this survival had come about but perhaps the tonsils may yet do some good by aiding the search after the genealogy of man.

Some people have thought that the concretions in human tonsils were of gouty origin but this is not the case as they do not consist of urates but are composed principally of phosphate and carbonate of lime.⁶

With best regards I remain | Yours very sincerely | T Lauder Brunton