To William Baxter or W. W. Baxter 21 March [1843–82]¹

Be so good as to fill the enclosed Bottle in following proportions.—

Verdigris in powder [drachm]i

Sal Ammoniac. do [drachm]i

Lamp-Black [drachm]ss

Water [drachm]x²

Dear Sir | Yours faithfully | C. Darwin

Down. | March 21^st

The date range is established by CD’s residence in Down from September 1842 onwards (Correspondence vol. 2, Appendix II). William Baxter and his son William Walmisley Baxter of Bromley, Kent, were CD’s regular chemists.

The recipe (one drachm of verdigris, one drachm of sal ammoniac, half a drachm of lamp-black, ten drachms of water) is for ink suitable for writing on zinc plant labels (W. Herbert 1837, p. 411). There is an annotated copy of W. Herbert 1837 in the Darwin Library–CUL (see Marginalia 1: 372–6); a note inside the back cover reads, ‘411 Labels for Gardens’.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13772,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13772

Summary

Requests a mixture of verdigris, sal ammoniac, and lamp-black.

Letter details

Record number: DCP-LETT-13772
From: Charles Robert Darwin
To: William Walmisley Baxter; William Baxter
Date: 21 Mar 1843
Date: 21 Mar 1844
Date: 21 Mar 1845
Date: 21 Mar 1846
Date: 21 Mar 1847
Date: 21 Mar 1848
Date: 21 Mar 1849
Date: 21 Mar 1850
Date: 21 Mar 1851
Date: 21 Mar 1852
Date: 21 Mar 1853
Date: 21 Mar 1854
Date: 21 Mar 1855
Date: 21 Mar 1856
Date: 21 Mar 1857
Date: 21 Mar 1858
Date: 21 Mar 1859
Date: 21 Mar 1860
Date: 21 Mar 1861
Date: 21 Mar 1862
Date: 21 Mar 1863
Date: 21 Mar 1864
Date: 21 Mar 1865
Date: 21 Mar 1866
Date: 21 Mar 1867
Date: 21 Mar 1868
Date: 21 Mar 1869
Date: 21 Mar 1870
Date: 21 Mar 1871
Date: 21 Mar 1872
Date: 21 Mar 1873
Date: 21 Mar 1874
Date: 21 Mar 1875
Date: 21 Mar 1876
Date: 21 Mar 1877
Date: 21 Mar 1878
Date: 21 Mar 1879
Date: 21 Mar 1880
Date: 21 Mar 1881
Date: 21 Mar 1882
Sent from: Down
Source of text: Bromley Historic Collections, Bromley Central Library (Baxter Collection, 1136/1)
Physical description: 1p

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Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 30-Supplement.

To William Baxter or W. W. Baxter 21 March [1843–82]¹

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To William Baxter or W. W. Baxter 21 March [1843–82]1

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To William Baxter or W. W. Baxter 21 March [1843–82]¹