Summary

Encloses letter from Thomas Henry Huxley (DCP-LETT-9942); CD thinks copies of their bill should be sent to Lyon Playfair and Edward Cardwell.

Richard Buckley Litchfield reports the intentions of the Humanitarians.

Summary

Sends the very little globulin and haemoglobin he has to be tested with artificial gastric juice. He could get more from Samuel William Moore. Perhaps T. L. Brunton knows about the digestion of chlorophyll by animals.

Summary

Reports that he has not received JSBS’s book on histology and physiology [Sanderson ed., Handbook for the physiological laboratory (1873)], which Edward Emmanuel Klein told CD’s son was to be sent. He asks for information so that he may thank Dr Klein. [Klein and Michael Foster were co-authors with JSBS.]

He has returned the Gazette to Dr T. L. Brunton. [See 8825.]

Summary

Thanks for fibrin. Drosera and Pinguicula dissolve it thoroughly.

Summary

Discusses digestion by insectivorous plants, asks JSBS to try same experiments using pepsin as the digestive agent to see how the results compare with CD’s observations on digestive power of Drosera.

Summary

Thanks JSBS for telegraphing his results, which seem very remarkable; feels he should now try Drosera.

Summary

Encloses a copy of Lord Derby's note of 17 April 1875 (DCP-LETT-9938).

Sir John Lubbock has agreed to meet CD, but no arrangement has been made.

Maybe they should drop the petition, since Lord Derby has agreed to help.

Summary

Reports difficulties in experiments on digestion of fibro-cartilage. Asks about JSBS’s experiments with artificial digestive fluids.

JSBS must read Hooker’s address at Belfast [Rep. BAAS 44 (1874): 103–16] to see what a magnificent digester Nepenthes is.

Summary

JSBS’s article in Nature ["Venus’s fly-trap", 10 (1874): 105–7, 127–8] could not have been better done.

Has found another plant, Pinguicula, which can catch and digest flies.

Summary

Has been testing the digestive powers of Drosera; wants to know whether a group of substances that elicit similar responses are related.

Summary

Has written to Lord Derby about the vivisection issue and urged him to speak to the proper members of the Cabinet to prevent "hasty legislation versus science". CD offered to send the sketch of the bill that has been drafted or a small deputation to wait on any member of the Cabinet. Lubbock does not think the petition should be presented as he feels sure that nothing will be done this session.

Summary

"We have not a day to lose if our [Vivisection] Bill or our petition is to do any good". Reports on the activities of the opposition and the attitude of politicians on the subject. Believes a meeting with a minister should be arranged and thinks Lord Derby would be a good man. "All will depend on some half-dozen or 9 or 12 men agreeing on the bill."

Summary

Describes his recent work on Drosera digestion of organic materials, e.g., albumen and gelatin. Edward Frankland has given CD a rough test for pepsin. Some plant extracts cause as much inflection as meat. Has found some reversible inflection with heat and perhaps some heat rigor. Has measured the extreme sensitivity of Drosera with very dilute solution of ammonium phosphate.

Summary

Very pleased at JSBS’s discovery ["On the electrical phenomena which accompany the contractions of the leaf of Dionaea muscipula", Rep. BAAS 43 (1873): 133].

Asks for pure animal substances [proteins] for Drosera experiments. His other sources have been T. L. Brunton, Edward Frankland, W. A. Miller (now dead), and Hoffmann of Berlin [A. W. von Hofmann?].

Summary

Thanks for JSBS’s essays; wishes he had said something on Lister’s observations. Speculates on the fungoid nature of smallpox and why there is seldom re-infection.

Discusses digestion by Drosera, the action of its secretion being the same as that of gastric juice.

Summary

Suggests JSBS’s new machine for observing arterial action be used to test CD’s hypothesis that blushing is caused by thinking intensely about a part of the body and thus releasing the arteries.

Summary

CD has helped leading physiologists to prepare a draft bill for legislation with regard to vivisection, and he hopes Lord Derby will support the bill and mention it to ministers of the Cabinet. Has heard that other groups are preparing bills for the same purpose, and feels it important that the science of physiology be protected as well as animals.

Summary

On the petition by scientists regarding vivisection and plans for presenting it in Parliament.

Summary

CD believes Playfair’s bill would not restrict demonstrations under anaesthetic.

Summary

"It is grand about Nepenthes."

JDH is welcome to notice in any way any of CD’s published or unpublished results with insectivorous plants. Gives an abstract of his observations on Drosera.