194 THE HISTORY OF BIOLOGY 



while science was abk to continue its work undisturbed by any serious 

 revaluations of the old standards. Speculative tendencies had indeed existed 

 in these countries at an earlier period — Buffon is, of course, the most bril- 

 liant example — and the theories of the true natural-philosophical age often 

 appear as continuations of those tendencies, while, on the other hand, they 

 serve as the transition between the past and exact science in the nineteenth 

 century. Nevertheless, even during this period there arose scientists whose 

 speculations had more in common with the natural philosophy so far de- 

 scribed, and who to a certain extent actually had direct points of contact 

 with it. It is now proposed to give one or two examples of speculations of 

 this kind, while such scientists as seem to stand in a more direct relation 

 to modern biology will be discussed at the beginning of the next section of 

 this work. 



In England natural-philosophical speculation has been a familiar prac- 

 tice from early times. Many of its pioneers have combined a wealth of origi- 

 nal ideas and theories for explaining natural phenomena with somewhat 

 unsystematic methods of thought and experiment. More or less gifted authors 

 of this type there were in abundance, especially in the numerous circles of 

 private scholars in England. In this category may be included Erasmus Dar- 

 win (i73i-i8ox), whose speculations caused a sensation in his day, not only 

 in England, but also on the Continent. Born at Nottingham of an old stock, 

 he devoted himself to medicine, studied in Cambridge and Edinburgh, and 

 finally practised as a doctor at Lichfield. He is described as very original, 

 vigorous and somewhat coarse-grained, honest and straightforward; besides, 

 he was a keen worker and well thought of in his profession, kind towards 

 the poor, and an ardent supporter of temperance. He had many children; 

 one of his sons was the father of Charles Darwin, and a daughter became 

 the mother of Francis Galton, the student of heredity. Apart from his own 

 profession, Erasmus Darwin was an indefatigable author and wrote a great 

 number of papers for the Royal Society and also published one or two col- 

 lections of poems, with which he himself was highly satisfied, but which 

 fell a victim to the ridicule of his contemporaries and the neglect of posterity. 

 The work, however, which alone has made his name memorable is his 

 Zoonomia, an attempt to find out the laws of organic life, which was pub- 

 lished in 1794 and was translated into several European languages. ' It 

 excited a good deal of attention at the time; the German natural philoso- 

 phers in particular have quoted it with appreciation. In modern times, how- 

 ever, it would certainly have caused but little notice had not the author 

 been the grandfather of Charles Darwin. At first sight it gives the impression 

 of being a most extraordinary conglomeration of diverse notes on scientific 



^ The author has not succeeded in coming across the original of this work, but has been 

 compelled to have recourse to Brandis's German translation. 



