This was added to The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online on September 21, 2007:
Sharper images of: Questions & experiments [1839-1844]. Images
Darwin’s “Questions & experiments” notebook (1839-1844) contained sort of “notes to
self” for doing experiments. He noted that he should shoot birds and examine dogs to find
methods of dispersal. “Kill sparrow after feeding on oats,” he wrote, “give body to hawk & sow
pellet. Ejected. Done.” Most importantly, he jotted down an idea for an ambitious experiment. “Soak all kinds of seeds for week in salt. Artificial water.” Dispersal would have to wait, however, for in the next few years Darwin published the second edition of his Journal of Researches and two geological texts on volcanic islands and South America. The following eight years, from 1846 to 1854, were tied up with one of his most ambitious scientific tasks: barnacles.
A bit blurry, but that says, “Soak all kinds of seeds for week in salt. Artificial water.”
