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.