Volume 1
The life and letters of Charles Darwin : including an autobiographical chapter / edited by his son, Francis Darwin.
- Charles Darwin
- Date:
- 1887
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The life and letters of Charles Darwin : including an autobiographical chapter / edited by his son, Francis Darwin. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![were to some extent characteristic of the man ; and this leads me to think that Erasmus had a certain acerbity or severity of temper which did not exist in his grandson. The sons of Erasmus Darwin inherited in some degree his intellectual tastes, for Charles Darwin writes of them as follows* :— “His eldest son, Charles (born September 3, 1758), was a young man of extraordinary promise, but died (May 15, 1778) before he was twenty-one years old, from the effects of a wound received whilst dissecting the brain of a child. He in herited from his father a strong taste for various branches of science, for writing verses, and for mechanics ... He also inherited stammering. With the hope of curing him, his father sent him to France, when about eight years old (1766— 6 y), with a private tutor, thinking that if he was not allowed to speak English for a time, the habit of stammering might be lost; and it is a curious fact, that in after years, when speaking French, he never stammered. At a very early age he collected specimens of all kinds. When sixteen years old he was sent for a year to [Christ Church] Oxford, but he did not like the place, and thought (in the words of his father) that the ‘ vigour of his mind languished in the pursuit of classical elegance like Hercules at the distaff, and sighed to be removed to the robuster exercise of the medical school of Edinburgh.’ He stayed three years at Edinburgh, working hard at his medical studies, and attending ‘with diligence all the sick poor of the parish of Waterleith, and supplying them with the necessary medicines.’ The Hiscu- lapian Society awarded him its first gold medal for an experi mental inquiry on pus and mucus. Notices of him appeared in various journals ; and all the writers agree about his uncommon energy and abilities. He seems like his father to have excited the warm affection of his friends. Professor Andrew Duncan .... spoke .... about him with the * ‘ Life of Erasmus Darwin,’ p. 80.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b18031961_vol_1_0026.JP2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
