THE BICENTENARY OF ERASMUS DARWIN AND HIS RELATION TO THE DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION* By E. B. KRUMBHAAR, M.D.

PHILADELPHIA ERASMUS DARWIN, the example, he was successful in a bibu- centenary of whose birth we lous age in diminishing the drunken- celebrate, has a threefold in- ness of the neighborhood, stimulated terest for the historically thereto by an early attack of the gout minded physician: First as grand- to which his family was disposed. father of the more famous Charles, Temperance ran in the family as seen avus sapiens nepotis magis sapientis in this rather curious addition to the (to paraphrase Horace); next as one family litany: of his most important forerunners in From a morning that doth shine, groping toward the full-fledged theory From a boy that drinketh wine, of evolution and third as a poet and From a wife that talketh Latine, physician, the first since Lucretius to Good Lord deliver me. express noteworthy scientific views Learning, also, was to be found on with poetry as a medium. both sides, barristers and antiquaries, Born at Elston Hall, Nottingham- even his mother had a great reputa- shire, December 12, 1731 (of a Lin- tion for learning, hence perhaps the colnshire family that descended from third line of the litany. Small wonder William Darwin of Stuart times) that one of his grandsons, Galton, Erasmus was the fourth and youngest should be inspired to enquire into the son, and was named after his great laws and consequences of Hereditary great grandfather, Erasmus Earle. Genius, while another, the greatest He studied medicine at Cambridge, exponent of Evolution, deservedly having an Exeter scholarship at St. stands as one of England’s greatest Johns. During one term he left Cam- scientists; not a few others of lesser bridge to attend Hunter’s lectures merit are to be found in the family in London. At Edinburgh he was tree. steeped in the rather arid doctrines Personally, Erasmus early became of Boerhaave. One likes to speculate large and unwieldly and his portrait by as to which of our American physicians Wright of Derby gives the appearance he met and knew, as our custom of of the typical well-fed, 18th century “finishing off” at Edinburgh was Englishman. He limped through his then in full swing. He started prac- latter life, following a fracture of the ticing at Nottingham in 1755; but, patella when he was pitched out of a meeting with but little success, moved carriage of his own invention. Miss the next year to Lichfield, where he Seward, who there is reason to be- not only amassed a large practice but lieve entertained some spiteful feel- followed the physician’s surest way ings to the re-married widower, said of establishing the family fortune by that he was marred by smallpox and marrying a rich wife. By precept and looked twice his age. “Conscious of * Read before the American Association of the History of Medicine, Atlantic City, May 4, 1931. great native elevation above the gen- His grandson Charles considered eral stand of intellect he became early him “remarkably free from vanity, in life sore upon opposition, whether conceit or display” and he was kind and considerate to the poor. Unlike this grandson, he had great intellectual vigor, hence part of Drinkwater’s literary criticism, “supreme master of misdirected energy,” and he preached action rather than speculation. A radical in his views, it was perhaps natural that he should be accused of atheism, though throughout his works are evidences of his belief in God, sometimes paraphrased as a First Cause, as the Creator of the Universe. One of the chapters in “Zoonomia” ends with the words of the Psalmist: “The heavens declare the Glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork.” If we agree with Charles Darwin in argument or conduct.” But how that “there is perhaps no safer test many of us become “sore upon oppo- of a man’s real character than of his sition” and strive unconsciously for long continued friendship with good “colloquial despotism” (another of and able men,” Erasmus’ character her phrases)? Miss Seward likewise must be highly valued. His friendship considered him extremely sceptical, with Josiah Wedgwood is one of the depending but little in his practice on most firmly established points in his the patient’s own history of his case; career; the Gal tons too; and of Keir, but his grandson quotes many friends Day, Small, Bolton, Watt, Wedgwood who extol his sympathy and benevo- and Darwin, Edgeworth says “their lence. This did not hinder a certain mutual intimacy has never been irascibility or ability to make himself broken except by death.” Their “lunar disagreeable if the occasion warranted. meetings” were famous in their day. A marked stammerer, he nevertheless With Rousseau, whom he met while spoke well in public, and on one botanizing at Wooton Hall, he carried occasion of “vinous exhilaration” it on a correspondence. Samuel Johnson, was noted that his stammer com- as one would expect at Lichfield, he pletely left him. This followed a picnic had met a few times; but their party on the Trent, when he suddenly dominating natures were incompatible dove overboard with his clothes on, and neither had a good word for the swam ashore, walked to nearby Not- other. tingham and was later found, mounted Darwin’s more strictly medical on a tub, haranguing the public with views are not without interest; he an excellent address on the need for recognized the importance of inher- fresh air and other sanitary arrange- ited *disease, foresaw the advantages ments in the home. * Temple of Nature, 1803, p. 45. of microscopic researches (cf. p. u), ish Princes, against the practitioners of advocated less restraint in the treat- sanguinary injection . . . That it had ment of the insane and recognized been practised with success, we may,

that dilated cutaneous vessels, para- lyzed by heat, may greatly lower the body temperature. Following Lady Montague’s smallpox inoculations, he tried the preventive inoculation of measles on two of his children, but from this interdiction, fairly conclude; they both got the disease so severely else restraint upon its continuance must have been superfluous. We have a very that he abandoned the practice. His ingenious watch-maker here, whom I farsighted views in Phytologia on the think I could instruct to form a proper biologic control of harmful insects by instrument for the purpose, if you choose propagating their greatest enemies to submit to the experiment.” . . . She and by other means have been very replied cheerfully, “that she had not the recently alluded to by W. A. Riley8 least objection, if he thought it eligible.” who considers him an important “forerunner of modern economic Miss Seward then said: entomologists.” If the trial should be determined upon, Transfusion of blood for the treat- perhaps Lady Northesk would prefer a ment of anemia came near being supply from an healthy human subject, resurrected by Erasmus Darwin, as the rather than from an animal. My health following abstract from Seward shows: is perfect, neither am I conscious of any lurking disease, hereditary or accidental. One evening, after a long and intense I have no dread of the lancet, and will reverie, he said, ... (to an anemic gladly spare, from time to time, such a patient seeking his help) “Lady Northesk, portion from my veins to Lady Northesk, an art was practised in former years, as Dr. Darwin shall think proper to which the medical world has very long inject. disused; that of injecting blood into the He did not choose, however, to stake veins by a syringe, and thus repairing the his reputation on the risk and fortu- waste of diseases like yours. Human nately cured the lady with a diet of blood, and that of calves and sheep, were used promiscuously. Superstition at- milk, vegetables and fruit. tached impiety to the practice. It was In December 1757, Darwin married put a stop to in England by a bull of Mary Howard, aged seventeen, with excommunication from some of our Pop- whom he lived happily till her death in 1770. By her he had three children, Memoirs of his life. Darwin, having of whom the eldest and most promis- purchased and adorned a “little, ing, Charles, committed suicide during wild, umbrageous valley ” about a mile an attack of melancholia. The sec- from Lichfield, invited his friend to ond, Robert, a successful practitioner view the finished work. Her poetic at Shrewsbury, married Wedgwood’s effusion (later published anonymously daughter and was the father of the with alterations by Darwin) in the immortal, Charles. Through Violetta, usual 18th century manner suggested the eldest daughter of his second wife, to him that as “the Linnean [sic] he became the grandfather of Francis System is unexplored poetic ground Galton. Eleven years later he married and an happy subject for the Muse,” the widow of Col. Chandos Pole of she should write an allegorical botan- Radburn Hall to which he shortly ical poem, reversing the method of moved, as he disliked Lichfield. After Ovid’s “Metamorphoses,” to which two years he moved to Derby and he would write the scientific notes. finally to Breadsail Priory, where he When she objected that “the plan was died in 1802. Partly recovered from a not strictly proper for a female pen,” minor illness, he was seized with a his fears of damaging his professional shivering fit, lay faint and cold and work with poetry were overridden and died painlessly within two hours of he commenced his work. Pursued an affection of the heart, according during “the short recess of profes- to his doctor son Robert. Although sional attendance, but chiefly in his an autopsy was performed, no par- chaise” as he travelled from one ticulars are now available. He was patient to another, with care polishing buried in Breadsall Church with the and repolishing the copious scientific following epitaph: notes, it took ten years for its com- pletion. It is over 4000 lines long in ERASMUS DARWIN, m .d ., f .r .s . decasyllabic rhymed couplets and the Born at Elston, near Newark, 12th Dec. notes more than twice as long again. I73i- It is in the notes that practically all Died at the Priory, near Derby, 10th the items of scientific importance are April, 1802. to be found. Of the rare union of Talents In his introduction and apology, the which so eminently distinguished him as a Physician, a Poet and Philosopher author says: His writings remain a public and unfading testimony. The general design of the following His widow sheets is to inlist [sic] Imagination under has erected this monument the banner of Science; and to lead her in memory of votaries from the looser analogies which the zealous benevolence of his disposition, dress out the imagery of poetry, to the the active humanity of his conduct, stricter ones, which form the ratiocination and the many private virtues of philosophy ... It may be proper which adorned his character. here to apologize for many of the subse- quent conjectures on some articles of Darwin’s first important poetic natural philosophy, as not being sup- work, the “Botanic Garden,” was ported by accurate investigation or con- inspired by certain verses of Miss Sew- clusive experiments. Extravagant theo- ard’s, who afterwards (1804) published ries, however, in those parts of philosophy, where our knowledge is yet imperfect, are maturity; philosophers of all ages seem to not without their use; as they encourage have imagined that the great world itself the execution of laborious experiments, had likewise its infancy and its gradual or the investigation of ingenious deduc- progress to maturity; this seems to have tions, to confirm or refute them.

As Drinkwater, who considered Dar- win’s work worth reading completely through as the best bad poem in the English language, says, “Whatever may be said for or against the prin- ciple, never was design more fatally carried out. Minutely specific knowl- edge combines with an orgy of stilted and inflated abstraction to make the poem pretty nearly everything that poetry should not be.’’ Darwin’s bi- ographer in the “Encyclopedia Bri- tannica” considers that “its merits lie in the genuine scientific enthusiasm and interest in Nature which pervade given origin to the very ancient and sublime it and of any other poetic quality allegory of Eros, or Divine loie, producing (except a certain, sometimes felicitous the world from the egg oj Night, as it but oftener ill-placed elaborate pomp floated in chaos. of words) it may without injustice be said to be almost destitute.” Yet, In the “Economy of Vegetation,” as with Wagner’s “Ring,” though the Goddess of Botany, welcomed surely in different proportions, much by Nature, allots various tasks to true poetry and real beauty can be the 4 elements, allegorized as female found scattered through the barren Gnomes, Water Nymphs, Sylphs and wastes, of stilted pseudo science Nymphs of Fire. The last-named, and absurd juxtapositions and at controllers of useful fire, are the least, as Leslie Stephens says, it is primal instructors of savage man; the “remarkable that Darwin’s poetry patronesses of chemistry, teaching everywhere shows a powerful mind.” the uses of gunpowder and inspiring I have abstracted the first part of the invention of the steam engine, the “Botanic Garden”—the “Economy with an 18th century anticipation of Vegetation”—and included some of locomotives, steamships and dirig- quotations, to illustrate some of its ibles. Electricity next is reviewed: qualities—good and bad. In a note to the sensations of an electrified circle verse ioi of the First Canto is to be of devotees and also its uses in found an early exposition of his ideas restoring the paralyzed: on evolution. He says: Palsy’s cold hands the fierce concussion own, And Life clings trembling on her tottering From baring observed the gradual evolu- throne. tion of the young animal or plant from its egg or seed; and afterwards its successive The fairy rings, thought to be caused advances to its more perfect state, or by the effect of lightning on the grass and oaks blighted by lightning are sides, to float the icebergs southward compared in this heterogeneous jum- to be melted in the warmer currents. ble with the fatal results of Profes- In the Second Canto the Gnomes are viewed as the spirits ministering to the underworld, and concerned with the astronomic wonders of creation: The formation of the earth from the crater of the sun; volcanos, earth- quakes, the formation of continents, seas and mountains and of the moon by an explosion of the earth (near the South pole!). As the Gnomes helped in the formation of stone and marbles, sculpture is passed in review. In the extraction of salines, a Punchinello scene is evoked where “azotic gas” becomes the lover of the virgin air with fire as the jealous rival. The mention of iron (produced by the decomposition of vegetable bodies (!)) sor Richman’s electrical experiments. brings us to the forge of Vulcan and Franklin and his lightning rods are a fine apostrophe of steel: likened to Cupid snatching Jove’s thunderbolts: Hail adamantine Steel! magnetic Lord, King of the prow, the ploughshare, and the Thus when, on wanton wing, intrepid Love sword! Snatch’d the rais’d lightning from the arm True to the pole, by thee the pilot guides of Jove, His steady course amid the struggling tides! Quick o’er his knee the triple bolt he bent, Braves with broad sail, th’ immeasurable sea, The cluster’d darts and forky arrows rent; Cleaves the dark air, and asks no star but Snapp’d, with illumin’d hands each flaming thee! shaft, His tingling fingers shook, and stamp’d, and Gems (formed from mixture of laugh’d. Bright o’er the floor the scatter’d fragments marine acids with shells and var- blaz’d, ious earths), Chinese porcelains and And Gods, retreating, trembled as they gaz’d. those of the author’s friend Wedge- Th’ immortal Sire, indulgent to his child, wood (from volcanic clay) coal, jet, Bow’d his ambrosial locks, and Heav’n amber (the source of electricity, which relenting, smil’d. through its connection with Franklin On the theory that phosphorus and thus with American independ- colors and warms the blood, the ence, suffices to introduce the French nymphs are described as affecting the Revolution and the short-lived free- animal circulation. Their task—to dom of Ireland), silver, gold (here wring the rain drops from the fiend the horrors of the slave-trade)—all of frost, and send forth electricity are in the Gnomes’ domain, who from the depths of the earth, to thaw likewise guide the stars in their courses the sap of plants and trees, to quit the (description of an orrery), stimulate torrid regions when the dog-star pre- fertility in animals and plants, and decompose living matter (the allegory The duties of the Water Nymphs of Adonis). in watering the roots of plants and The Water Nymphs of Canto 3 Howers serve for a comparison with must help form and protect the vegetable world, operate the mill and propel the barge. To them the birth of rivers from Alpine snows; to them control of the sea (including the then recent suggestion of oil to smooth the troubled waters); to them charge of the nuptials of “pure air” and inflam- mable gas—here allegorized into a lengthy extravaganza of Jove’s nup- tials with Juno. For the early death of Brindley, the father of commercial canals, nymphs “shower’d th’ in- cessant tear,” a lament to be shortly followed by what today at least seems a grotesque contrast—a description of the mechanism of the common garden the course of the chyle through the pump. The use of water by the fire- human body, while their ministra- engine, on the other hand, invokes tions to the parched traveller is lines reminiscent of the Great Fire of exemplified in a Moslem pilgrimage London of the previous century, lines across the desert to Mecca. whose force of expression and vivid- To the Sylphs of the Fourth Canto ness of description leave no doubt as falls the duty of protecting the emer- to the poet’s capacity. gent vegetation. They must arrest the devastating simoon, “pierce the From dome to dome when flames infuriate climb, drowsy Fog,” combat contagion and Sweep the long street, invest the tower guide the study of the air. Here sublime; Torricelli, Boyle and Priestley share Gild the tall vanes amid th’ astonish’d night, the stage with young Rossiere, then And reddening heaven returns the sanguine recently “precipitated from his flam- light; While, with vast strides and bristling hair, ing montgolfier,” a certain ship- aloof wrecked Capt. Pierce and family, Pale Danger glides along the falling roof; and Day and Spalding, unfortunate And giant Terror, howling in amaze, pioneers in diving bells. The Sylphs Moves his dark limbs across the lurid blaze; are commanded to raise an altar to Nymphs, you first taught the gelid waves to Hygiea, summon the Fire-vestals, rise, Hurl’d in resplendent arches to the skies; Gnomes and Nymphs and all join the In iron cells condens’d the airy spring, Queen of Botany in a patriotic apos- And imp’d the torrent with unfailing wing; trophe to the Goddess of Health. On the fierce flame the shower impetuous falls, In the Loves of the Plants, which, And sudden darkness shrouds the shatter’d though a Second Part, was published walls; Steam, smoke, and dust, in blended volumes in 1789, two years before the complete roll, work, the author has detailed the And Night and Silence repossess the pole. amorous adventures of some hundred personified plants based on the Lin- as anticipating “the views and errone- nean system: “The classes are dis- ous grounds of opinions of Lamarck”* tinguished from each other by this —perhaps on account of his well- known dislike for that scientist—it cannot be denied that Erasmus had a clearer concept, though largely un- supported by evidence, than any of his, and in some ways of his grand- son’s, predecessors. We have already noticed the footnote in the “ Economy of Vegetation” and his ideas on the gradual progress of the world from infancy to maturity. Believing that the lime of the earth came entirely from living creatures—pardonable per- haps in the then state of chemical knowledge—he is said to have altered the motto to his family coat-of-arms, which bore three scallop shells, to E concbis omnia. The importance of vestigial struc- ingenious system, by the number, tures as evidence in support of evolu- situation, adhesion or receipt, propor- tion seems to have been well recog- tion of the males in each flower. nized by Erasmus. Early in the The orders in many of these classes “Economy of Vegetation” he states: are distinguished by the number or other circumstances of the females.” There are likewise some apparently In this whimisical arrangement the useless or incomplete appendages to number of “males” signifies the num- plants and animals which seem to shew ber of stamens per flower; of females, they have gradually undergone changes from their original state; such as the the pistils. Its absurdities opened the stamens without anthers, and styles way to an equally well known parody without stigmas of several plants, as by Canning—“The Loves of the Tri- mentioned in the note on Curcuma, vol. angles,” which appeared in the Anti- ii of this work. Such as the halteres, or Jacobin. A sample of its language rudiments of wings of some two-winged seems hardly more preposterous than insects, and the paps of male animals; parts of its prototype: thus swine have four toes, but two of them are imperfectly formed, and not With lucid language, and most dark designs, long enough for use. [And again] there is In sweet tetrandryan, monogynian strains a curious circumstance, [he says], belong- Part for a pistil in botanic pains; ing to the class of insects which have two Raise lust in pinks and with unhallowed fire, wings, or diptera, analogous to the rudi- Bid the soft virgin violet expire. ments of stamens above described; viz, two little knobs are found placed each Darwin’s Ideas on Evolution. on a stalk or peduncle, generally under a Though Darwin’s grandson Charles * Lamarck is said by Osborn to be the rather summarily dismisses his grand- only writer of whom Charles Darwin ever father’s position on Evolution merely spoke disdainfully. little arched scale; which appear to be reactions of the organism and not to rudiments of hinder wings; and are called the direct physical action. In sketch- by Linneus halteres, or poisers, a term of ing his views on Evolution, Darwin his introduction. Other animals have marks of having in a long process of time undergone changes in some parts of their bodies, which may have been effected to accommodate them to new ways of procuring their food. The existence of teats on the breasts of male animals, and which are generally replete with a thin kind of milk at their nativity, is a wonder- ful instance of this kind. Perhaps all the productions of nature are in their progress to greater perfection?—an idea counte- nanced by the modern discoveries and deductions concerning the progressive formation of the solid parts of the terra- queous globe, and consonant to the dignity of the Creator of all things.

In his “Zoonomia or the Laws of Organic Life,” published in London considers first, the great changes that 1794-1798, his ideas on evolution occur in animals in a single lifetime are even more clearly and extensively (tadpole, frog, etc.); second, those expressed. This treatise the “En- that may be produced by cultivation cyclopedia Britannica” calls a treatise (the bulldog, foxhound, greyhound); on generation containing a system third, those that occur before birth of pathology,* while the enthusiastic (hybrids, monstrosities, breeding for Seward thought that it opened a type) together with a statement of “new era of pathologic science” and Epigenesis; fourth, the great similar- would teach more than the univer- ity even of cold-blooded and warm- sities or the pages of Galen or Hippo- blooded animals, and fifth, the per- crates. Kraus considers that its funda- petual transformation that animals mental idea is that there is “a living undergo during a single lifetime and force at work in plants and animals here he adheres to the Inheritance of which is enabled spontaneously to acquired characteristics. To do justice adapt them to the circumstances to these ideas it is but fair to give his of the outer world.” This differs own words, even though the quotation from Buffon’s belief (whom Darwin is lengthy: resembled in ascribing importance When we revolve in our minds, first, to the struggle for existence) in that the great changes, which we see naturally Darwin felt that modifications due produced in animals after their nativity, to environment were due to the changed as in the production of the butterfly with * Here the term is useci in as broad a sense painted wings from the crawling cater- as even the most progressive of modern pillar; or of the respiring frog from the pathologists could demand. In fact a 19th subnatant tadpole; from the feminine boy century pathologic anatomist might easily to the bearded man. . . have considered such a use an abuse. Secondly, when we think over the great changes introduced into various animals also with an additional claw, and with by artificial or accidental cultivation, as wings to their feet, and of others without in horses, which we have exercised for the rumps. Mr. Buffon mentions a breed of different purposes of strength or swiftness, dogs without tails, which are common at in carrying burthens or in running races; Rome and Naples, which he supposes to or in dogs, which have been cultivated for have been produced by a custom long strength and courage, as the bull-dog; or established of cutting their tails close off. for acuteness of his sense of smell, as the There are many kinds of pidgeons, hound and spaniel; or for the swiftness admired for their peculiarities, which are of his foot as the greyhound; or for his monsters thus produced and propagated. swimming in the water, or for drawing . . . When we consider all these changes snow-sledges, the rough-haired dogs of of animal form, and innumerable others, the north; . . . and add to these the which may be collected from the books of great changes of shape and colour, which natural history; we cannot but be con- we daily see produced in smaller animals vinced, that the fetus or embryon is from our domestication of them, as formed by apposition of new parts, and rabbits, or pidgeons; or from the differ- not by the distention of a primordial ence of climates, and even of seasons; nest of germs included one within another thus the sheep of warm climates are like the cups of a conjurer. covered with hair instead of wool; and Fourthly, when we revolve in our minds the hares and partridges of the latitudes the great similarity of structure which which are long buried in snow, become obtains in all the warm-blooded animals, white during the winter months; add to as well quadrupeds, birds, and amphibi- these the various changes produced in ous animals, as in mankind; from the the forms of mankind by their early mouse and bat to the elephant and whale; modes of exertion; or by the diseases one is led to conclude, that they have alike occasioned by their habits of life; both been produced from a similar living of which become hereditary, and that filament. In some this filament in its through many generations. Those who advance to maturity has acquired hands labour at the anvil, the oar, or the loom, and fingers, with a fine sense of touch, as as well as those who carry sedan-chairs, in mankind. In others it has acquired or those who have been educated to claws or talons ... in others toes with dance upon the rope, are distinguishable an intervening web, or membrane . . . by the shape of their limbs . . . in others it has acquired cloven hoofs Thirdly, when we enumerate the great . . . and whole hoofs in others . . .while changes produced in the species of animals in the bird kind this original living fila- before their nativity; these are such as ment has put forth wings instead of arms resemble the form or colour of their or legs, and feathers instead of hair. In parents, which have been altered by the some it has protruded horns on the fore- cultivation or accidents above related, head instead of teeth in the fore part of and are thus continued to their posterity. the upper jaw; in others tushes instead of Or they are changes produced by the horns; and in others beaks instead of mixture of species, as in mules; or changes either. And all this exactly is daily seen produced probably by the exuberance of in the transmutations of the tadpole, nourishment supplied to the fetus, as in which acquires legs and lungs when he monstrous births with additional limbs; wants them; and loses his tail when it is many of these enormities of shape are no longer of service to him. propagated, and continued as a variety Fifthly, from their first rudiment, or at least, if not as a new species of animal. primordium, to the termination of their I have seen a breed of cats with an lives, all animals undergo perpetual trans- additional claw on every foot; of poultry formations, which are in part produced by their own exertions in consequence up the soil in search of insects and of of their desires and aversions, of their roots. The trunk of the elephant is an pleasures and pains, or of irritations, or of elongation of the nose for the purpose of associations; and many of these acquired pulling down the branches of trees for his forms or propensities are transmitted to food, and for taking up water without their posterity. bending his knees. Beasts of prey have As air and water are supplied to animals acquired strong jaws or talons. Cattle in sufficient profusion, the three great have acquired a rough tongue and a rough objects of desire, which have changed the palate to pull off the blades of grass . . . forms of many animals by their exertions Some birds have acquired harder beaks to gratify them, are those of lust, hunger, to crack nuts, as the parrot. Others have and security. A great want of one part acquired beaks adapted to break the of the animal world has consisted in the harder seeds, as sparrows. Others for the desire of the exclusive possession of the softer seeds of flowers, or the buds of females; and these have acquired weapons trees, as the finches. Other birds have to combat each other for this purpose, as acquired long beaks to penetrate the the very thick, shield-like, horny skin on moister soils in search of insects or roots, the shoulder of the boar is a defense only as woodcocks, and others broad ones to against animals of his own species, who filtrate the water of lakes, and to retain strike obliquely upwards, nor are his aquatic insects. All of which seem to have tushes for other purposes, except to de- been gradually produced during many fend himself, as he is not naturally a generations by the perpetual endeavour of carnivorous animal. So the horns of the the creatures to supply the want of food, stag are sharp to offend his adversary, and to have been delivered to their posterity but are branched for the purpose of with constant improvement of them for the parrying or receiving the thrusts of horns purpose required. similar to his own, and have, therefore, l he third great want among animals is been formed for the purpose of combat- that of security, which seems much to ing other stags for the exclusive possession have diversified the forms of their bodies of the females; who are observed, like the and the colour of them; these consist in ladies in the time of chivalry, to attend the means of escaping other animals more the car of the victor. powerful than themselves. Hence some The birds which do not carry food to animals have acquired wings instead of their young, and do not therefore marry, legs, as the smaller birds, for the purpose are armed with spurs for the purpose of of escape; others great length of fin or of fighting for the exclusive possession of membrane, as the flying fish, and the bat. the females, as cocks and quails. It is Others great swiftness of foot as the hare. certain that these weapons are not pro- Others have acquired hard or armed vided for their defence against other shells, as the tortoise and the echinus adversaries, because the females of these marinus. species are without this armour. The final The contrivances for the purposes of cause of this contest amongst the males security extend even to vegetables, as is seems to be, that the strongest and most seen in the wonderful and various means active animal should propagate the species, of their concealing or defending their which should thence become improved. honey from insects, and their seeds from Another great want consists in the birds. On the other hand, swiftness of means of procuring food, which has wing has been acquired by hawks and diversified the forms of all species of swallows to pursue their prey; and a animals. Thus the nose of the swine has proboscis of admirable structure has been become hard for the purpose of turning acquired by the bee, the moth, and the humming bird, for the purpose of plund- common cause: “as the earth and ering the nectaries of flowers. All which ocean were probably peopled with seem to have been formed by the original vegetable productions long before the living filament, excited into action by the existence of animals; and many fami- necessities of the creatures, which possess lies of these animals long before other them, and on which their existence families of them, shall we conjecture depends. that one and the same kind of living From thus meditating on the great filaments is and has been the cause of similarity of the structure of the warm- all organic life?” This he logically blooded animals, and at the same time pursues to spontaneous generation of of the great changes they undergo both before and after their nativity; and by the first and lowliest forms: considering in how minute a portion of Hence without parent by spontaneous birth time many of the changes of animals Rise the first specks of animated earth above described have been produced; would it be too bold to imagine, that in a theory which even today has a the great length of time, since the earth weightier backing than the earlier began to exist, perhaps millions of ages begging-the-question that life had before the commencement of the history been carried here from other stars. of mankind, would it be too bold to Erasmus, to be sure, proceeded to imagine, that all warm-blooded animals weaken his position by giving ex- have arisen from one living filament amples of present-day spontaneous which the great first cause endued with generation, which have been buried animality, with the power of acquiring since the historic work of Pasteur. new parts, attended with new propensi- The preformation theory, which ties, directed by irritations, sensations, still held ground in spite of the evi- volitions, and associations; and thus dence of Harvey and others in favor possessing the faculty of continuing to of Epigenesis, was cleverly disposed of improve by its own inherent activity, by Erasmus in the following words: and of delivering down those improve- ments by generation to its posterity, Many ingenious philosophers have world without end! found so great difficulty in conceiving the manner of reproduction in animals, that Thus we see that he appreciated they have supposed all the numerous and gave expression to the theory of progeny to have existed in miniature in Epigenesis and to the idea of Sexual the animal originally created. This idea, Selection in propagating and improv- besides its being unsupported by any ing the species, and had noted various analogy we are acquainted with, ascribes food-obtaining and security contrivances a greater continuity to organised matter both in animals and plants which than we can readily admit. These em- promoted their chances of survival. bryons . . . must possess a greater degree In the 39th section of “Zoonomia” of minuteness than that which was he has several paragraphs on protective ascribed to the devils who tempted St. coloration of plants, and animals’ Anthony, of whom twenty thousand were said to have been able to dance a sara- eggs and bodies (the white winter band on the point of a needle without the coat of snow-animals included) which least incommoding each other. have an altogether modern ring. He recognizes the similarity of vegetable In discussing the origin of man and animal life and conjectures a in notes in the “Temple of Nature,” he recognizes various anatomical ar- or how little Lamarck owed to Darwin rangements that indicate a former is a point on which opinions differ.* horizontal posture, and considers with Concepts verging on Evolution had Buffon and others that mankind may occupied the attention of philosophers have arisen from one family of mon- since the days of Anaximander and keys “who accidentally had learned Empedocles. It should probably not be to use the adductor pollicis,” an idea held that Erasmus Darwin produced that still holds its own in a hotly any new idea on the subject of Evolu- contested field. Then he proceeds to tion that was of prime importance alienate our support by asserting that or gave important deflections to the gradually increasing stream of evolu- this family lived in a precise spot on tionary knowledge. Nevertheless, just the south shore of the Mediterranean. as his grandson Charles is entitled to The struggle for existence is recog- the highest credit even though doubt- nized in various parts of his writings, less evolution would have not been perhaps best in “Phytologia” (xix, 7). long in receiving adequate expression If he had only recognized with Mal- without him, so Erasmus must receive thus the effect that this has on the his due for getting to most of the roots character and amount of survival, of the matter and giving the clearest then natural selection, the keystone of expression of the subject up to his his grandson’s arch, would have been time. But perhaps we had better con- added to him. clude, as does Drinkwater, in Eras- Compared with his more famous mus’ own words from the “Botanic contemporary Lamarck, it is clear Garden’’: “Such as it is . . . desire that Darwin anticipated most if not the ladies and gentlemen to evaluate, all of Lamarck’s well known four laws but please to apprize them that like (1, internal force tending to increase the spectators at an unskilful exhibi- body volume; 2, production of a new tion in some village barn I hope they part as a result of need; 3, direct will make good humor one of their relation of development of a part to party.” its employment; 4, transmission of * See H. F. Osborn’s from the Greeks to acquired characteristics). How much Darwin.

Eras mus Dar win ’s Publi cati ons

1. Note on Ascension of Vapour, Philosophical culture and Gardening; with the Theory Trans., 1757. of Draining Morasses, and with an 2. The Botanic Garden. Poem in two parts improved construction of the Drill with Philosophical Notes, 1791. (2nd Plough, London, 1799. part '‘Loves of the Plants,” published 5. A Plan for the Conduction of Female 1789; 1 st part “Economy of Vegeta- tion,” 1792, Ed. 4, London, 1799, Education. Derby, 1797. New York, 1798. 6. The Temple of Nature or the Origin of 3. Zoonomia, or the Laws of Organic Life, Society; a Poem with Philosophical London, 1794; Ed. 2, 1801, New York, Notes. London, 1803, New York, 1804. I796- 7. Poetical Works with Philosophical Notes, 4. Phytologia, or the Philosophy of Agri- London, 1807. Articles in Encyclopedia Britannica and Osbo rn , H. F. From the Greeks to Darwin. Dictionary of National Biography. Scribner’s, London, 1924. Brow n , T. Observations on the Zoonomia. Edinburgh, 1798. Clod d , E. Pioneers of Evolution. London, Sewar d , A. Memoirs of the Life of Dr. Grant Richards, 1897. Darwin, chiefly during his residence in Rile y , W. A. Erasmus Darwin and the Lichfield, etc. London, 1804, and Phila., biologic control of insects. Science, 73: Wm. Poyntell, 1804. Kraus e , E. Erasmus Darwin, with a Pre- 476, 1931- liminary Notice by Charles Darwin. Various translations and subsequent English New York, Appleton, 1880. and American Editions.

[From Donzelli: Teatro Farmaceutico, 1677.]