Ɛpsilon

To J. T. Moggridge   27 August 1873

Down Beckenham

Aug. 27th. 1873

My dear Sir

I thank you for your very interesting letter, and I honour you for your laborious and careful experiments.1 No one knows till he tries how many unexpected obstacles arise in subjecting plants to experiments.

I can think of no suggestions to make; but I may just mention that I had intended to try the effects of touching the dampened seeds with the minutest drop of formic acid at the end of a sharp glass rod, so as to imitate the possible action of the sting of the ant.2 I heartily hope that you may be rewarded by coming to some definite result; but I fail 5 times out of 6 in my own experiments. I have lately been trying some with poor success and suppose that I have done too much, for I have been completely knocked up for some days.3

That is an extremely curious fact which you mention about the old Jewish law.4

With all good wishes, | Your’s very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

1
Moggridge had reported on the progress of his experiments on the prevention of seed germination in his letter of 22 August 1873.
2
In his experiments Moggridge had used the vapour of a dilute solution of acid in distilled water (see letter from J. T. Moggridge, 22 August 1873).
3
Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242) reported for 26 August 1873 that CD was very unwell and had suffered partial memory loss for twelve hours.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9030,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9030