To Joseph Fayrer 4 July [1874]1
Down | Beckenham. Kent.
July 4th.
My dear Sir.
Pray forgive my making a small suggestion, if, as I hope you try cobra poison on the white corpuscule, would it not be good for, the control experiment to have the corpuscules in a Sol: of Sugar of the same proportional strength as the cobra poison— I am led to this suggestion from what I have seen with Drosera; & I almost wish that this had been done with the vibratile cilia.—2 The more I think on subject the more surprised I am at different action of the poison on vegetable & animal protoplasm.3
I forgot in my last note to thank you for your offer (if in your power) about Crotalus poison—4 Pray forgive me if you think my suggestion superfluous— I know well that you are a far better judge than I.— If you see Dr. L. Brunton will you tell him I am very curious to hear about the Papaw plant.—5 Also if he has anything more to say about the digestion of pepsine by pepsine & acid;6 but I suppose not.
Yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Brunton, Thomas Lauder. 1885. A text-book of pharmacology, therapeutics and materia medica; adapted to the United States pharmacopœia. London: Macmillan & Co.
Insectivorous plants. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1875.
Summary
Suggests experiment involving cobra poison on white corpuscles. Thanks for offer of Crotalus poison.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9533
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Joseph Fayrer, 1st baronet
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 144: 104
- Physical description
- C 1p
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9533,” accessed on 19 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9533.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22