To Lawson Tait 4 June [1875]1
Abinger Hall | Wotton, Surrey
June 4th
My dear Sir
I have been much interested by your letter.— When I made little slits in the leaves for the sake of ascertaining the direction in which the motor impulse is transmitted, I found that the lobe on the injured side did not move on irritating one of sensitive filaments on that side, but that the opposite lobe did move. So for case like yours.2 You will be better judge than I, but I attributed the result to the injury affecting power of movement in a greater degree than power of transmission of motor impulse.— You will find one or two analogous facts, & under Drosera what seems to me a truly reflex action.— You will see why I doubt about nerves.3
If you make out about the tails of mice, it will be a beautiful little discovery: I enjoy it the more, because some German sneered at Nat. Selection, & instanced the tail of the mouse: I think it was Bronn.—4
A friend has lent us this house for a month, for a change as I am quite done up with correcting Proofs (very nearly finished, & Dionæa quite finished) of my book.—5
So excuse brevity— You will of course publish on Dionæa—6 I hope so.—
yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Insectivorous plants. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1875.
Origin 6th ed.: The origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. 6th edition, with additions and corrections. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1872.
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
Tait, Lawson. 1879. Researches on the digestive principles of plants. [Read 22 May 1879.] Proceedings of the Birmingham Philosophical Society 1 (1876–9) pt 2: 125–39.
Summary
CD’s observations on the power of movement and transmission of motor impulses in plants. If RLT succeeds with the tails of mice, it will be "a beautiful little discovery"; CD will enjoy it the more "because some German sneered at natural selection and instanced the tail of the mouse" [see 10013].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10009
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait
- Sent from
- Abinger Hall
- Source of text
- Natural History Museum, Library and Archives (General Special Collections DC AL 1/19)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10009,” accessed on 28 May 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10009.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 23