From John Brigg 6 July 1877
Keighley
July 6th. 1877
C. Darwin Esqre
Dear Sir
Many thanks for the account of Pouchet’s experiments1 the information is exactly what I wanted. I am not yet in a position to dispute his conclusions but I think I can prove a few more points beyond those which he mentions. My fish are the ordinary Gold Fish (Carp,2 in our mill ponds we breed large numbers a proportion are dark coloured placing these in a white vase with bright sunlight they become yellow. I have been led into this by finding that the introduction of a weed into one pond prevented the fish from changing to Golden or White the same fish in another pond; where the water is too hot for the weed to grow: are almost all Gold yellow or white.
If you have any interest in the experiments I shall be glad to inform you of their results.
I remain | Dear Sir | Yours ms truly | John Brigg—
I have two Alligators now about 3 feet long, which I keep in the mill ponds. I have good opportunity for noting their habits should you wish to know about them
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Pouchet, Félix Archimède. 1859. Hétérogénie ou traité de la génération spontanée. Paris: J. B. Baillière.
Summary
Thanks CD for account of F. A. Pouchet’s experiments. Cannot yet dispute his conclusions.
Continues experiments on the colour of goldfish as affected by light and presence of plants.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-11037
- From
- John Brigg
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Keighley
- Source of text
- DAR 160: 309
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11037,” accessed on 12 October 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11037.xml