It has been said of Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) that no one has ever rivalled him in his achievements in such a wide range of fields. He was a far-sighted scientific genius and one of the foremost physicians of his time. His gift for friendship enabled him to recruit the members of the Lunar Society of Birmingham which is often seen as the main intellectual powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution in England.
The son of a Nottingham lawyer, Darwin studied classics and mathematics at St. John’s, Cambridge, and then engaged in three years of medical training at the University of Edinburgh. He moved to Lichfield in 1756, where he ran a medical practice and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society (1761).
His first wife, Mary Howard, died in 1770, leaving three surviving sons, and the youngest, physician Robert Waring Darwin, married the daughter of Darwin’s close friend, English craftsman and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood. The young couple’s fifth son was Charles Darwin, who would later write the influential work On the Origin of the Species (1859).
In the early 1770s Erasmus Darwin had two illegitimate daughters with his live-in helper, Mary Parker. In 1781 he married a young widow, Elizabeth Pole in 1781, and moved to Derby, where they had seven children.
The most striking of Darwin's many talents was his extraordinary scientific insight in physics, chemistry, geology, meteorology and all aspects of biology -- his deepest insight being his evolutionary theory of life. Two of his books, the ‘Zoonomia’, which made him famous as the leading medical mind of the 1790s, and ‘The Temple of Nature’, a long poem, show that he believed life developed from microscopic specks in primeval seas through fishes and amphibians to 'humankind'. He spent 7 years translating Linnaeus' text of botanical classification into English.
Darwin helped to transform British manufacturing by promoting canal systems and steam power. He invested in development and technological innovations of factory owners, such as Josiah Wedgwood, Matthew Boulton, and Thomas Arkwright.
Erasmus was the first person to give a full description of how clouds form and of photosynthesis in plants. He was also an inventor of mechanical devices, among them a speaking machine, a horizontal windmill, a copying machine, sketches for rocket engines and the steering technique used in modern cars!
Towards the end of his life he gained recognition as the leading English poet in the country, and he deeply influenced Blake, Wordsworth and Shelley. This insight into Erasmus Darwin; was given by Pat Empsall through ‘Erasmus Darwin House’ in Lichfield, which is open 6 days a week.
Our Next Meeting on July 2nd will be a visit to Sandon Church starting at 7.30 pm (or meet at the hall at 7.00pm if you need a lift).
The September 3rd meeting will be about ‘Animal Symbolism’ in the Staffordshire Hoard.
John Egginton