782 



ANNUAL HEGISTER, 1S04; 



called into a6^ion, and brilliantly 

 opened his career of fame. The 

 late Mr. Inge, of Thorpe, in Staf- 

 fordshire, a young gentleman of 

 family, fortune, and consequence, lay 

 sick of a dangerous fever. The justly 

 celebrated doctor Wilks of Willen- 

 hal, who had many years possessed, 

 in a great degree, the business and 

 confidence of the Lichfield neigh- 

 bourhood, attended Mr. Inge, and 

 had unsuccessfully combated his dis- 

 ease. At length he pronounced it 

 hopeless, and took his leave. It 

 "Was then that a fond mother, wild 

 with terror for the life of an only son, 

 as drowning wretches catch at twigs, 

 sent to Lichfield for our young, and 

 as yet inexperienced physician. By 

 an opposite and entirely novel course 

 cf treatment, Dr. Darwin gave his 

 dying patient back to existence, to 

 health, prosperity, and all that 

 high reputation, Avhich Mr. Inge 

 afterwards possessed as a public 

 magistrate. 



The far-spreading report of this 

 judiciously daring and fortunate 

 exertion brought Dr. Darwin into 

 immediate and extensive employ- 

 mcnt.and soon eclipsed the hopes of 

 an ingenious rival, who resigned the 

 contest ; nor had he ever after- 

 wards to contend with any other 

 competitor. 



Equal success, as in the case of 

 Mr. Inge, continued to result from 

 the powers of Dr. Darwin's genius, 

 his frequent and intense meditation, 

 and the avidity with Mhich he, 

 through life, devoted his leisure to 

 scientific acquirement, and the in- 

 vestigation of disease. Ignorance 

 and timidity, superstition, preju- 

 dice, and envy sedulously strove to 

 attach to his pra(5tice the terms, 

 rash^ experimental^ theoretic; not 

 considering, that without experinietit 



the restoring science could harA 

 made no progress. 



In 1757, he married Miss How.* 

 ard, of the Close of Lichfield, a 

 blooming and lovely young lady of 

 eighteen. A mind, which had na- 

 tive strength ; an awakened taste 

 for the works of imagination ; in- 

 genuous sweetness ; delicacy, ani- 

 mated by sprightliness and sustained 

 by fortitude, made her a capable, 

 as well as facinating companion, 

 even to a man of talents so illustri- 

 ous. — But, alas ! upon her earlj 

 youtn, and a too delicate constitu- 

 tion, the frequency of her mater- 

 tial situation, during the first five 

 years of her marriage, had probably 

 a baneful eflFedt. The potent skilly 

 and assiduous cares of him, before 

 Mhom disease daily vanished from 

 the frame of others, could not ex- 

 pel it radically from that of her he 

 loved. It was however kept at bay 

 thirteen years. 



The year after his marrigc, Dr. 

 Darwin purchased an old half tim- 

 bered house in the Cathedral vicar- 

 age, adding a handsome new frontj 

 with Venetian windows, and com- ' 

 modious apartments. This front 

 looked towards Bacon Street, but 

 had no street annoyance, being se- 

 parated from it by a narrow deep 

 dingle, which, when the doctor 

 purchased the premises, was over- 

 grown with tangled briars and knot 

 grass. A fortunate opening be- 

 tween the opposite houses and this 

 which has been described, gives it a 

 prospect, sufficiently extensive, of 

 pleasant and umbrageous fields. 

 Across the dell, between thi* 

 house and the street. Dr. Darwia 

 flung a broad bridge of shallow steps 

 with Chinese paling, descending from 

 his hall door to the pavement. The 

 tangled ^ud hollow bottom he 



c)earedj 



