P.S. You ask about Frank’s discovery; but if I were like you in constant communication with spirits, I sh^d. not care even for a jelly-fish, & this is the strongest simile I can apply to you.—²

Pray do not mention Frank’s work, as if it were to break down, it would make my mortification greater; but I am almost sure it will not break down.—³ The leaves of the teazle or Dipsacus form cups containing rain-water, in which a vast number of insects are drowned, & F. finds the cups lined with small glands on footstalks. He naturally thought that these w^d. secrete digestive fluid, or more probably absorbed decaying fluid, like the quadrifid processes within the bladders of Utricularia.—⁴ But on placing glands (he has tried a dozen) in a weak solution of C. of Ammonia⁵ or in an infusion of putrid meat, he saw protruding, always from the centre of the summit of the gland, a small mass of matter, & on observing this he saw it send forth long filaments of the most diversified shapes, which were in constant movement. If a little alcohol (&c) is added under the slide the filaments & whole mass are quickly withdrawn within the gland as I have witnessed. There can hardly be doubt that these protoplasmic mass catch & involve particles of matter; for such particles could be seen travelling down some of the threads, or the matter of the threads was itself travelling quickly. There remains very much to observe & reobserve, for he has had all time taken up with another paper for the Q. M. Journal.⁶ But I can hardly doubt that we here have a highly organised plant which emits from its cells masses of protoplasm, identical with an amœba or other Protozoan, for the sake of capturing particles of dead organic matter; & this seems to me a wonderful discovery.

C.D

What a capital letter by D^r. Richardson in Nature.—⁷