Ɛpsilon

From J. S. Burdon Sanderson   26 May [1874]1

49, Queen Anne Street. | W.

May 26

Dear Mr Darwin

I have just been reading over your last letter (of May 14)2 and find that there are several questions still to answer and that I have very carelessly neglected one or two matters that ought to have been immediately attended to. I have no excuse to make that is worth setting forward & therefore shall not attempt any.

I may mention provisionally that artificial gastric juice dissolves bone entirely and that gluten & fibrin are completely dissolved both in Hydrochloric acid and in the propionic & butyric acids at ordinary temperatures.3

I have noted down all the matters to be attended to & I think I may say positively that all will be completed in a couple of days

Very truly yours | J B Sanderson

CD annotations

1.1 I have … any. 1.4] crossed pencil
Top of letter: ‘at suggestion of Dr B. Sanderson Hydrochloric Acid’ blue crayon; ‘(Gluten) & [‘Fibrin’ del] | (2)’ red crayon
1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to J. S. Burdon Sanderson, 14 May 1874.
3
The experiments with artificial gastric juice are described in Insectivorous plants, pp. 104–8 and 131.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9470,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9470