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case which he treated with so much success as to attract the public notice, was that of a young man of fortune, who, being in a fever, was given over by his ordinary physician, but whom Darwin restored, probably by one of those bold measures from which others would have shrunk, but to which he wisely had recourse whenever a desperate malady called for a desperate cure. His patient, whose name was Inge, was, I believe, the same whom Johnson, in his life. of Ambrose Phillips, has termed a gentleman of great eminence in Staffordshire. Part of the wealth that now flowed in upon him, from an extensive and opulent circle, was employed with that liberality which in this country is perhaps oftener exercised by men of his profession than by those of any other.

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At Lichfield, he formed an intimacy with several persons, who afterwards rose to much distinction. Of these, the most remarkable were Mr. Edgeworth, whose skill in mechanics made him acceptable to Darwin; Mr. Day, a man remembered to more advantage by his writings than by the singularities of his conduct; and Anna Seward, the female most eminent in her time for poetical genius. The manner in which the first of these introduced himself shall be told in his own words, as they convey a lively description of Darwin's person and habits of life at this time. "I wrote an account to the Doctor of the reception which his scheme" (for preventing accidents to a carriage in turning) "had met with from the Society of Arts. The Doctor wrote me a very civil answer; and though, as I afterwards found out, he took me for a coach-maker, he invited me to his house: an invitation which I accepted in the ensuing summer. When I arrived at Lichfield, I went to inquire whether the Doctor was at home. I was shown into a room where 1 found Mrs. Darwin. I told her my name. She said the Doctor expected me, and that he intended to be at home before night. There were books and prints in the room, of which I took occasion to speak. Mrs. Darwin asked me to drink tea, and I perceived that I owed to my literature the pleasure of passing the evening with this most agreeable woman. VOL. VI.

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We walked and conversed upon various literary subjects till it was dark; when Mrs. Darwin seeming to be surprised that the Doctor had not come home, I offered to take my leave; but she told me that I had been expected, for some days, and that a bed had been prepared for me: I heard some orders given to the housemaid, who had destined a different room for my reception from. that which her mistress had upon. second thoughts appointed. I perceived that the maid examined me attentively, but I could not guess the reason. When supper was nearly. finished, a loud rapping at the door announced the Doctor. There was a bustle in, the hall, which made Mrs. Darwin get up and go to the door. Upon her exclaiming that they were bringing in a dead man, I went to the hall. I saw some persons, directed by one whom I guessed to be Doctor Darwin, carrying a man who appeared to be motionless. He is. not dead,' said Doctor Darwin. He is only dead drunk. I found him,' continued the Doctor, nearly suffocated in a ditch: I had him. lifted into my carriage, and brought hither, that we might take care of him to-night." Candles came; and what was the surprise of the Doctor and of Mrs. Darwin, to find that the person whom he had saved was Mrs.. Darwin's brother! who, for the first time in his life, as I was assured, had been intoxicated in this manner, and who would undoubtedly have perished had it not been for Doctor Darwin's humanity. During this scene I had time to survey my new friend, Doctor Darwin. He was a large man, fat, and rather clumsy; but intelligence and benevolence were painted in his countenance: he had a considerable impediment in his speech, a defect which is in general painful to others; but the Doctor repaid his auditors so well for making them wait for his wit or his knowledge, that he seldom found them impatient. When his brother was disposed of, he came to supper, and I thought that he looked at Mrs. Darwin as if he was somewhat surprised when he heard that I had passed the whole evening in her company. After she withdrew, he entered into conversation with me upon the carriage that I had made, and upon the remarks

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that fell from some members of the
Society to whom I had shown it. I
satisfied his curiosity; and having told
him that my carriage was in the town,
and that he could see it whenever
he pleased, we talked upon mecha-
nical subjects, and afterwards on
various branches of knowledge, which
necessarily produced allusions to
classical literature; by these, he dis-
covered that I had received the edu-
Why! I
cation of a gentleman.
thought,' said the Doctor,
That
you were a coach-maker!'
was the reason,' said I, that you
looked surprised at finding me at
supper with Mrs. Darwin. But you
see, Doctor, how superior in discern-
even to the most
ment ladies are
learned gentlemen: I assure you that
I had not been in the room five mi-
nutes before Mrs. Darwin asked me
to tea!" "

ness.

that

These endeavours to improve the construction of carriages were near did he costing him dear; nor desist till he had been several times thrown down, and at last broke the pan of the right knee, which occasioned a slight but incurable lameThe amiable woman, of whom Mr. Edgeworth has here spoken, died in 1770. Of the five children whom she brought him, two were lost in their infancy. Charles, the eldest of the remaining three, died at Edinburgh, in 1778, of a disease supposed to be communicated by a corpse which he was dissecting, when one of his fingers was slightly wounded. He had obtained a gold medal for pointing out a test by which pus might be distinguished from mucus; and the Essay in which he had stated his discovery was published by his father after his death, together with another treatise, which he left incomplete, on the Retrograde Motions of the Absorbent Vessels of Animal Bodies in some Diseases. Another of his sons, Erasmus, who was a lawyer, in a temporary fit of mental derangement put an end to his existence in 1799. Robert Waring, a physician, now in high reputation at Shrewsbury, is the only one of these children who survived him.

A few years before he quitted Lichfield in consequence of a second marriage, he attempted to establish a Botanical Society in that city; but his only associates were the present

Sir Brooke Boothby, and a proctor
whose name was Jackson. Of this
triumvirate, Miss Seward, who knew
them well, tells us that Jackson ad-
mired Sir Brooke Boothby, and wor-
shipped and aped Dr. Darwin. He
became a useful drudge to each in
their joint work, the translation of
the Linnæan system of vegetation
into English from the Latin. His il-
lustrious coadjutors exacted of him
fidelity to the sense of their author,
and they corrected Jackson's inele-
gant English, weeding it of its pomp-
Darwin had already

ous coarseness.

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conceived the design of turning the
Linnæan system into a poem, which,
after he had composed it, was long
handed about in manuscript; and, I
believe, frequently revised and alter-
ed with the most sedulous care. The
stage on which he has introduced his
fancied Queen of Botany, and her at-
tendants from the Rosicrusian world,
has the recommendation of being a
real spot of ground within a mile of
A few
the place he inhabited.
years ago it retained many traces of
the diligence he had bestowed on it,
and has probably not yet entirely
lost them. Of this work, called the
Botanic Garden, which he retained
till he thought there was no danger of
his medical character suffering from
his being known as a poet, he pub-
lished, in 1789, the second part, con-
taining the Loves of the Plants,
first; believing it to be more level to
the apprehension of ordinary readers.
It soon made its way to an al-
most universal popularity. With the
lovers of poetry, the novelty of the
subject and the high polish, as it
was then considered, of the verse,
secured it many favourers, and the
curiosity of the naturalist was not less
gratified by the various information
and the fanciful conjectures which
abounded in the notes. The first part
was given to the public in three years
after.

In 1795 and 1796, appeared the two
volumes of Zoonomia, or Laws of
much consideration.
Organic Life, the produce of long
labour and
What profit a physician may derive
from this book I am unable to deter-
mine; but I fear that the general
reader will too often discover in it a
hazardous ingenuity, to which good
sense and reason have been sacrificed.
When the writer of these pages, who

was then his patient, ventured to intimate the sensuality of one part of it to its author, he himself immediately referred to the passage which was likely to have raised the objection; and, on another occasion, as if to counteract this prejudice in the mind of one whose confidence he might be desirous of obtaining, he recommended to him the study of Paley's Moral Philosophy.

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In 1781, he married his second wife, the widow of Colonel Pole, of Radburne, near Derby, with whom he pears to have lived as happily as he had done with his first. By her persuasion, he was induced to pass the latter part of his days at Derby. Here his medical practice was not at all lessened; and he had a second family to provide for out of the emolument which it brought him. His other publications were a Tract on Female Education, a slight performance written for the purpose of recommending a school kept by some ladies, in whose welfare his relation to them gave him a warm interest; and a long book (in 1800) on the Philosophy of Agriculture and Gardening, which he entitled Phytologia.

On Lady Day, 1802, he took possession of an old house, called the Priory, which had belonged to his son Erasmus, and was situated at a short distance from Derby; and on the 17th of the next month, while he was writing to his friend, Mr. Edgeworth, the following letter, he was arrested by the sudden approach of death.

Priory, near Derby, April 17, 1802. Dear Edgeworth,-I am glad to find that you still amuse yourself with mechahism, in spite of the troubles of Ireland.

The use of turning aside, or downwards, the claw of a table, I don't see, as it must be reared against a wall, for it will not stand alone. If the use be for carriage, the feet may shut up, like the usual brass feet of a reflecting telescope.

We have all been now removed from Derby about a fortnight, to the Priory, and all of us like our change of situation. We have a pleasant home, a good garden, ponds full of fish, and a pleasing valley somewhat like Shenstone's-deep, umbrageous, and with a talkative stream running down it. Our home is near the top of the valley, well screened by hills from the east and north, and open to the south, where at four miles' distance we see Derby

tower.

Four or more strong springs rise near the house, and have formed the valley, which, like that of Petrarch, may be called Valchiusa, as it begins, or is shut at the situa tion of the house. I hope you like the description; and hope farther, that yourself or any part of your family will sometime do me the pleasure of a visit.

Pray tell the authoress that the waternymphs of our valley will be happy to assist her next novel.

My bookseller, Mr. Johnson, will not begin to print the Temple of Nature till the price of paper is fixed by Parliament. suppose present duty is paid

I

the

To this imperfect sentence was added on the opposite side by another hand; 1;

Sir,-This family is in the greatest affliction. I am truly grieved to inform you of the death of the invaluable Dr. Darwin. Dr. Darwin got up apparently in good health; about eight o'clock, he rang the library bell. The servant, who went, said he appeared fainting. He revived again. Mrs. Darwin was immediately called. The Doctor spoke often, but soon appeared fainting; and died about one o'clock. inconsolable: their affliction is great inOur dear Mrs. Darwin and family are deed, there being few such husbands or fathers. He will be most deservedly lamented by all who had the honour of being known to him.

I remain, Sir,
Your obedient humble servant,

S. M. PS. This letter was begun this morning by Doctor Darwin himself.

The complaint which thus suddenly terminated his life, in his seventy first year, was the Angina Pectoris.

were

The Temple of Nature was printed in the year after his death; but the public had either read enough of his other things, for little attention was writings or occupied with paid to this poetical bequest. That ingenious burlesque of his manner, the Loves of the Triangles, probably contributed to loosen the spell by which he had for a while taken the general ear.

His person is well described by his biographer, Miss Seward, as being above the middle size, his form athletic, and his limbs too heavy for exact proportion; his countenance marked by the traces of a severe small-pox, and, when not animated by social pleasure, rather saturnine than sprightly. In youth, his exterior was rendered agreeable by florid health, and a smile that indica

ted good humour. His portrait, by Wright of Derby, gives a very exact, but inanimate, representation of his form and features. In justice to the painter, it must be told, that I believe the likeness to have been taken after death.

In his medical practice he was by some accused of empiricism. From this charge, both Miss Seward and Mr. Edgeworth have, I think, justly vindicated him. The former has recorded a project which he suggested, on the supposed authority of some old practitioners, but which he did not execute, for curing one of his consumptive patients by the transfusing of blood from the veins of a person in health. I have been told, that when a mother, who seemed to be in the paroxysm of a delirium, expressed an earnest wish to take her infant into her arms, and her attendants were fearful of indulging her lest she should do some violence to the object of her affection, he desired them to commit it to her without apprehension, and that the result was an immediate abatement of her disorder. This was an instance rather of strong sagacity than of extraordinary boldness; for nothing less than a wellfounded confidence in the safety of the experiment could have induced him to hazard it.

I know not whether it be worth relating, that when sent for to a nobleman, at Buxton, who conceived his health to have suffered by the use of tea, to which he was immoderately addicted, Darwin rang the bell, and ordered a pot of strong green tea to be brought up, and, filling both his patient's cup and his own, encouraged him to frequent and lavish draughts. I have heard that he was impatient of inquiries which related to diet; thinking, I suppose, that after the age of childhood, in ordinary cases, each person might regulate it best for himself. But of an almost entire abstinence from fermented liquors, he was, both by precept and example, a strenuous adviser. "He believed," says Miss Edgeworth, in her Memoirs of her Father, "that almost all the distempers of the higher classes of people arise from drinking, in some form or other, too much vinous spirit. To this he attributed the aristocratic isease of gout, the jaundice, and

all bilious or liver complaints; in short, all the family of pain. This opinion he supported in his writings with the force of his eloquence and reason; and still more in conversation, by all those powers of wit, satire, and peculiar humour, which never appeared fully to the public in his works, but which gained him strong ascendancy in private society. During his life-time, he almost banished wine from the tables of the rich of his acquaintance; and persuaded most of the gentry in his own and the neighbouring counties to become water-drinkers." Here, I doubt, Miss Edgeworth has a little over-rated the extent of his influence. "Partly in jest, and partly in earnest, he expressed his suspicions, and carried his inferences on this subject, to a preposterous ex

cess.

When he heard that my father was bilious, he suspected that this must be the consequence of his hav ing, since his residence in Ireland, and in compliance with the fashion of the country, indulged too freely in drinking. His letter, I remember, concluded with-Farewell, my dear friend. God keep you from whiskey--if he can."

His opinion respecting the safety of inoculating for the small-pox at a proper age, as it was expressed in the following letter to the writer of these pages, will be satisfactory to such parents as are yet unconvinced of the efficacy of vaccination; and his opinion is the more valuable, because it was given at a time when there was neither prejudice nor prepossession on the subject.

Derby, Oct. 9, 1797.. Dear Sir-On the best inquiry I have been able to make to-day, I cannot hear that the small-pox is in Derby. I can only add, that all those who have died by inoculation, whom I have heard of these last twenty years, have been children at the breast; on which account it may be safer to defer inoculation till four or five years old, if there be otherwise no hazard

of taking the disease naturally.

I am, &c.

E. DARWIN. On the accounts which his patients gave him of their own maladies he placed so little dependence, that he thought it necessary to wring the truth from them as a lawyer would do from an unwilling witness.

His general distrust of others, in all that related to themselves, is well exemplified by a casual remark that has been lately repeated to me by a respectable dignitary of the church, to whom, when he was apologizing for his want of skill in the game of chess, at which they were going to play, Darwin answered, that he made it a rule, not to believe either the good or the harm that men spoke of themselves.

This want of reliance in the sincerity of those with whom he conversed has been attributed, with some colour of reason, to his habitual scepticism_on matters of higher moment.

Mr. Fellowes has observed of him, that he dwelt so much and so exclusively on second causes, that he seems to have forgotten that there is a first. There is no solution of natural effects to which he was not ready to listen, provided it would assist him in getting rid of what he considered an unnecessary intervention of the Supreme Being. A fibre capable of irritability was with him enough to account, not only for the origin of animal life, but for its progress through all its stages. He had thus involved himself in the grossest materialism; but, being endued with an active fancy, he engendered on it theories so wild and chimerical, that they might be regarded with the same kind of wonder as the fictions of romance, if our pleasure were not continually checked by remembering the error in which they originate. What more prodigious transformation shall we read of in Ovid, than that which he supposes the organs of his strange ens to have undergone during the change of our globe from moist to dry?

As in dry air the sea-born stranger roves, Each muscle quickens, and each sense improves ;

Cold gills aquatic form respiring lungs, And sounds aerial flow from slimy tongues.

Temple of Nature, c. 1. The peculiarities of the shapes of animals, which distinguish them from each other, he supposes to have been gradually formed by these same irritable fibres, and to have been varied by reproduction. As to the faculties of sensation, volition, and associa tion, they come in afterwards as matters of course, and in a manner so easy and natural, that the only won

der is, what had kept them waiting so long. He mentions, with something like approbation, the hypothesis of Buffon and Helvetius, who, as he tells us, seem to imagine, that mankind arose from one family of monkeys, on the banks of the Mediterranean, who accidentally had learned to use the adductor pollicis, or that strong muscle which constitutes the ball of the thumb and draws the point of it to meet the points of the fingers, which common monkeys do not; and that this muscle gradually increased in size, strength, and activity, in successive generations; and that, by this improved use of the sense of the touch, monkeys acquired clear ideas, and gradually became men.

To this he gravely adds, that perhaps all the productions of nature are in their progress to greater perfection! an idea countenanced by modern discoveries and deductions concerning the progressive formation of the solid parts of this terraqueous globe, and consonant to the dignity of the Creator.

His description of the way in which clear ideas were acquired is not much improved when he puts it into

verse.

Nerved with fine touch above the bestial throngs,

The hand, first gift of Heaven! to man belongs:

Untipt with claws, the circling fingers close, With rival points the bending thumbs Trace the nice lines of form with sense

oppose,

And clear ideas charm the thinking mind. refined,

Temple of Nature, c. 3.

He tells us of a naturalist who had found out a shorter cut to the production of animal life, who thought it not impossible that the first insects were the anthers and stigmas of flowers, which had by some means loosened themselves from their parent plant, and that other insects in process of time had been formed from these; some acquiring wings, others fins, and others claws, from their ceaseless efforts to procure food, or to secure themselves from injury. What hindered but these insects might have acquired hands, and by those means clear ideas also, is not explained to us.

As great improvements, however,

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