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Sir John Burdon Sanderson collection

  • RBSC-ARC-1730
  • Collection
  • 1852-1909

This is the complete set of John Burdon Sanderson’s vivisection licenses, from 1876 to 1905 (the year of his death). The first license is numbered “1”, and is in fact the first license ever issued in Great Britain under the Act of 1876. They are signed in person by the various Home Secretaries, Viscount Cross (Home Secretary 1874), Vernon Harcourt, Henry Matthews, H.H. Asquith (later Prime Minister), etc.

In addition, there are two small notebooks, written by John Burdon Sanderson’s wife, Lady Ghetal Burdon Sanderson, which contain copies of letters written by John Burdon Sanderson and herself, that she recopied into the notebooks, in the course of her research into his life.

Burdon-Sanderson, John, Sir

Darwin-Burdon Sanderson letters

  • RBSC-ARC-1731
  • Collection
  • 1873-1881

This group of about 40 letters, a part of the Sinclair Collection, consists of correspondence between Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882) and John Scott Burdon Sanderson (1828-1905) during the years from 1873-1881.
The letters deal with the research Darwin and Burdon Sanderson did on the digestive powers and leaf movements of insect-eating plants, notably Drosera and Dionaea. Darwin published the results of this research as part of his <em>Insectivorous Plants</em> (1875).
There is also correspondence about Burdon Sanderson's (and to a lesser extent, Darwin’s) attempts to ensure that the antivivisectionists should not secure the passage of a bill through Parliament that should hinder scientific research. Sanderson's efforts influenced the events that led to the appointment of a Royal Commission in 1875 to study the use of animals in scientific research in Britain.

Burdon-Sanderson, John, Sir