From S. W. Moore [1 October 1873]1
(1) With respect to chondrine & gelatin it has been decided that they have no nutrient properties; this conclusion is derived from the fact that dogs fed exclusively on them die of starvation; a recent experimentalist has opened up the question again & he declares that death occurs from starvation when an animal is fed exclusively with anything say fibrin, but the question is still in debateable ground.2 Gelatin is a stationary product occupying a purely mechanical position in the economy, i.e. as the basis of bones tendons etc; chondrin on the contrary is an active body which becomes converted to other tissue, in fact, fibrin stands first, then the transition to chondrin that to gelatin & this to bone by deposition of lime & conversion to uses etc of the animal parts.
(2) Artificial gastric juice consists of pepsin 3.0 to the 1000, hydrochloric acid 0.2 to the 1000 (water) about 20. to the 1000 of your dilute Hydrochloric Acid.3
(3) The boiled cabbage gives up all its salts to the water with probably a little albumen, but the infusion would contain more albumin than the boil’d solution; tea infusion would contain no albumin from the fact that by drying it is rendered insoluble; the green peas act, I should think, from the presence of Chlorophyll, I will prepare a little if you would like to try it, the grass acts less energetically because the peas are a convertible albumin while the grass is formed,4
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Insectivorous plants. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1875.
Tegetmeier, William Bernhard. 1870. The value of gelatin as food. Food Journal, 1 September 1870, pp. 444–5.
Summary
Information for CD’s use in investigating digestion by Drosera.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9082
- From
- Samuel William Moore
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- unstated
- Source of text
- DAR 58.1: 40
- Physical description
- AL inc †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9082,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9082.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 21