From Francis Darwin   [1873]

New University Club, | St. James’s Street. S.W.

Dear Father

Klein says the water ought to be changed every day1   I should think you might draw if off with a syphon, which Jim could rig up with glass tubing & indiarubber ditto— I found I could pour off a good deal of water by stretching a bit of gauze over the lip of the basin.

diagram

I left a bit I used on the fern heap in Deadman’s corner; but I should think the syphon wd be best— Please tell G the Revalenta shop is shut today.2 Klein says his discovery about toads’ ova does not bear on pangenesis.3 I don’t know why he said it was good for you.

Yr affec | Frank Darwin

Endorsement: ‘F.D 73’’

1
Edward Emanuel Klein was a bacteriologist and histologist. The experiment has not been identified. Jim was Horace Darwin’s nickname.
2
Francis probably refers to George Howard Darwin. Revalenta was a mixture of lentil and barley meal, sold as a health food (Hassall 1855, pp. 237–50).
3
The discovery has not been identified. For CD’s hypothesis of pangenesis, see Variation 2: 357–404.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-8713F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-8713F