Summary

Thanks for information about the Atropia.

Summary

Thanks for loan of measure.

Summary

Orders pot of soft spermaceti ointment.

Summary

Would greatly prefer an enema with a shorter nozzle but with a somewhat larger diameter.

Summary

The returned gloves are similar to some he has already, and he would prefer a pair with stiffer bristles.

Summary

Orders salts of various metals; thinks chlorides (where soluble) would be better than nitrates.

Summary

Orders large pot of spermaceti ointment.

Summary

Requests a piece of the most sensitive litmus paper in order to test the secretions of minute hairs of plants which catch minute flies. [See 9098.]

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

Requests 6 2oz bottles with corks. Folic acid produces remarkable effect. Orders hydriodic acid.

Summary

Orders distilled water, 2 oz of camphorated spirits, and perfume.

Summary

Asks about possible animal substances in samples of Belladonna and Digitalis.

Summary

Orders a very small pot of "purest & best Extract of Hyosciamus for experimental purposes".

Summary

Requests chemicals for Drosera experiments. Lists 12 acids tried so far.

Summary

Asks for the specific gravity of common phosphate of ammonia.

Summary

Is sending Drosera back

and "the curious Kerguelen book".

"Drosera has almost been the death of me."

Hopes the accursed man [Ayrton] does not give JDH any more trouble.

Summary

Asks about the composition of a spermaceti ointment which he has been buying for some years "because I blackened some young shoots of plants with this ointment mixed with Lamp-black & it produced an extraordinary effect on the shoots, which I think cannot be accounted for merely by the exclusion of light".

Summary

Orders sulphuric ether, nitric ether, chloroform, and prussic acid [for Drosera experiments? See Insectivorous plants, pp. 209, 219].

Summary

Describes self- and cross-fertilisation experiments.

Asks JHG’s advice on setting up an experiment designed to test whether the cause of variation in cultivated plants lies in different substances absorbed from the soil when absorption is not interfered with by other plants in a state of nature. Can JHG suggest how he can get soil free of all the substances which plants naturally absorb?

Summary

Henrietta’s illness.

CD’s resort to [E. W. Lane’s] water-cure.

Other family news.