To J. S. Burdon Sanderson 31 March [1874]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent.
March 31st
My dear Dr. Sanderson.
How carefully & excellently you have made the experiments, which I fear must have cost you much trouble. They will be most useful to me, especially those on the acids & I am greatly obliged to you.2 There is one point which you do not mention, & which I ought to know, viz the temperature at which the experiments were tried. Drosera digests at ordinary summer temperatures, & as far as casual observations serve almost equally well during ordinary summer weather & very hot weather. If you tried your experiments at the heat of human body or above that, it is just possible that the fatty acids would run a better race with the Hydrochloric at lower temperatures. Would it not be worth while to try one of the fatty acids & the Hydrochloric at ordinary temperatures?3
Again heartily thanking you | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin
If all the globuline which I sent has not been used or thrown away,4 will you return me a few grains, as I shd like to try a few particles on Drosera aiding the plant with a minute drop of very weak Hydrochloric acid.—
P.S. I do not at present think that I shall try more digestion-experiments with Drosera this summer; not but what I like the work much, & your most kind offer is very tempting, but then I have other matter almost ready for publication & which, if I go on, I shall never have strength to publish.—5
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Insectivorous plants. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1875.
Summary
Thanks for the careful experiments, particularly on organic acids.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9381
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- John Scott Burdon Sanderson, 1st baronet
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- University of British Columbia Library, Rare Books and Special Collections (Darwin - Burdon Sanderson letters RBSC-ARC-1731-1-5)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9381,” accessed on 26 March 2023, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9381.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22