Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- c 1903-c 1923 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
25 items: notebooks and loose notes.
Context area
Name of creator
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Most of the material in this category is in the form of notebooks. Some of these, such as one from the Engineering Laboratory, Cambridge, and the 'Field Book' containing notes on and attempts at field surveying, date from Onslow's time as an undergraduate. Most however record his own investigations into genetics and biochemistry from 1912 onwards. Notable are the three large books in which Onslow's programme of breeding rabbits for colour is recorded, with a page for each individual rabbit and often a stamped image showing markings. There are also notebooks on Onslow's research into pigmentation in insects (butterflies and beetles) and birds.
Amongst the loose notes, there are several relating to Onslow's interest in hypnosis, including observations made during the hypnosis of Louis Chauvin over several sessions by Onslow, William Howard Warman, and Francis Aveling. A fair quantity of material relating to experiments which led to Onslow's paper A Method of estimating the Tryptophan Content of Caseinogen, based on Determinations of the Nitrogen Values of the Mercuric Sulphate Precipitate (published posthumously in 1924) is also present.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Notebooks arranged chronologically, as far as possible, followed by loose notes arranged likewise.