Women's Christian College,
College Road, Madras, India.
October 5, 1922.Dear Miss Turner,
The apparatus arrived eventually. It was held up because the invoice was not authoritiatively signed and the contents had to be examined by customs officials. The things did so rejoice my heart as I unpacked them (including the Boston papers in which they were wrapped!). I haven't yet had a chance to try them all out and discover whether I know how to work them but we're still doing digestion and won't need them for a little while. The kymograph rod and slew had rusted considerably so that it doesn't run but I'm sure that it's simply a matter of oil and elbow grease to get it in order. Your lab book is such a help to an inexperienced teacher. It saves my life. I've been holding several private sessions with salivary digestion and haven't yet succeeded in getting really satisfactory results.
October 12.
This missed last week's mail but it will certainly get this one.
On Tuesday afternoon my physiology class of eighteen second-year students did salivary digestion in lab and I have some questions. To what extent does the mixture "clear" before one should begin to test with iodine and Fehling's? I have found that it remains turbid almost throughout the experiment and simply had to guess at the time for starting tests. It averaged 5-10 minutes to the time when sugar first appeared and the iodine test sill gave a blue color. I found that 3 drops of iodine gave more satisfactory results than the 1, although I notice that you have changed from 3 to 1 since the year I took physiology. In my own and in four of the six sets of class experiments (we were limited by shortage of watch glasses and test tubes) the change from blue to purple took place quickly, but in the other two it did not change until more saliva was added, altho we had started with 25 drops to 25 cc starch paste. The purplish-brown color remained unchanged thin [?] 6-8 watch glasses (at 1 1/2 minute intervals) so that in every case but one it required about 20 glasses to complete the experiment. In my own records from Holyoke I record 7 1/2 minutes for the formation of achroödextrim while here it has taken practically half an hour. Also the final color is not so pale as I had remembered it, but was distinctly brownish green. India does all sorts of things but I can't believe that it should slow up salivary digestion so markedly. The starch paste was well cooked and I can think of no other possible slip-up.
I'm learning so many thing! I have to cram my head off for the B.A. Zoölogy but after I've once covered the whole ground it won't be so bad. Up to now Botany has always been the main subject with Zoölogy subsidiary but this year two of the four in the new Junior B.A. class have asked to do Zoo main so I'm cramming extra hard on all the South Indian fauna and on pesky little groups such as Nernerturea [?] and Chaetognatha. The year of teaching has wholly convinced me that physiology is my pet and that if ever I can go on to study that will be my subject. I love comparative anatomy in Zoo but I don't particularly like this detailed study of form of group after group after group as it must be done for the University. Already I'm beginning to have pipe dreams about Dr. Carmon's course in 1926 combined with work at the Wellesley gym school, for I also have to teach gym out here and feel strongly that someone should know something about the science of the thing. Also I hanker after work in a dispensary for a short time if possible. All of which is still a long way off.
I've just come in from playing basket-ball with the girls and am sitting in pools of water! Tomorrow begins the inter-school tournaments & I'll be umpiring. I love it.
Your card from England was good to get. I wish I might hear you tell of all the things you saw. Are there changes in your department or are Charlotte & Betsy & Dorothy still with you? Please give my love to Miss Morgan & Elizabeth and Charlotte, & salaams to Betsy and Dorothy & Rachel and anyone else whom I knew. I'm busy getting things to send to Miss Smith for the Holyoke fund. How is that going? It's good to have Edith Coon over there to tell me things, but I'll be glad to see her back. No chemist in sight yet.
How is Dr. Clapp? I haven't heard from her at all.
Much love to you, Miss Turner, and many thanks for getting the things for me.
Is there a new edition of Howell since 1918? And what is the best journal for keeping one posted on new doings in physiology?