Ɛpsilon

To Joseph Fayrer   30 March 1882

Down. | Beckenham. Kent.

March 30th 1882.

My dear Sir.

You will perhaps remember that you gave me some years ago a little cobra-poison for experimenting on Drosera—1 Can you redouble your kindness by giving me ever so little of this or any other snake poison? Half a grain & even a quarter of a grain would probably suffice for an experiment which I am anxious to try.—2

If you have none—I suppose that it would not be possible to purchase any in any shop?

Pray excuse me for troubling you & I remain | My dear Sir. | Yours very faithfully— | Charles Darwin.

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1
In 1874, Fayrer had sent cobra poison, a solution of which CD applied to the glands of Drosera (sundew); he found that the poison did not kill, but rather, acted as a stimulant to the protoplasm (see Correspondence vol. 22, letter from Joseph Fayrer, 17 June 1874, and letter to Joseph Fayrer, [before 25 June 1874]).
2
In a recent paper, ‘Action of carbonate of ammonia on chlorophyll’, CD had reported the results of experiments with various substances in causing aggregation of chlorophyll grains. CD may have wanted to test the effect of cobra poison on chlorophyll, but no notes have been found on the subject.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13750,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13750