From J. S. Burdon Sanderson   12 April [1875]1

49 Queen Anne St

April 12

Dear Mr Darwin,

I write a line to say that, after seeing Mr. Litchfield this morning (& he was kind enough to call with the copy of the draft bill)2 I went over with it to talk to Mr Simon,3 & told him what it was proposed to do. He made a number of suggestions which I will send to Mr. Litchfield.

Mr Simon thinks that it wd. best promote the object, if you would see Lord Derby yourself & simply ask him to engage Mr Cross not to commit himself.4 For this purpose it would be sufficient merely to let Lord Derby know that such a bill had been prepared & that it had received the concurrence of scientific men, particularly of those interested in Physiology.

Mr Simon thinks that the next step would be to arrange a small Deputation to Mr. Cross, of which Deputation he wd. be glad to be one.

I have received the adhesions of Sir R Christison and Prof Turner5

Believe me ever | yours sincerely | J B Sanderson

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to J. S. Burdon Sanderson, [11 April 1875].
2
CD and others had prepared a petition to regulate vivisection, and had then drawn up a draft bill with the legal assistance of Richard Buckley Litchfield (see letter to J. S. Burdon Sanderson, [11 April 1875]). A copy of the first sketch of this bill is in DAR 139.17: 21 (see Appendix VI).
3
John Simon was on the council of the Royal College of Surgeons.
4
Edward Henry Stanley, the earl of Derby, was foreign secretary; for CD’s connection with Stanley, see letter to J. S. Burdon Sanderson, [11 April 1875] and n. 6. Richard Assheton Cross was home secretary.
5
Robert Christison was president of the British Medical Association; William Turner was professor of anatomy at the University of Edinburgh.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9923A,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9923A