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254 OBITUARY a 
saying that his mother had taught him how, byl 
looking at the inside of the blossom, the name of 
the plant could be discovered.” (1., p. 28.4) : 
The theory that men of genius derive their 
qualities from their mothers, however, can hardly 
derive support from Charles Darwin’s case, in the 
-face of the patent influence of his paternal fore- 
fathers. Dr. Darwin, indeed, though a man of 
marked individuality of character, a quick and 
acute observer, with much practical sagacity, is 
said not to have had a scientific mind. But when 
his son adds that his father “formed a theory for 
almost everything that occurred” (I., p. 20), he 
indicates a highly probable source for that in- 
ability to refrain from forming an hypothesis on 
every subject which he confesses to be one of the 
leading characteristics of his own mind, some 
pages further on (I., p. 103). Dr. R. W. Darwin, 
again, was the third son of Erasmus Darwin, also 
a physician of great repute, who shared the 
intimacy of Watt and Priestley, and was 
widely known as the author of “ Zoonomia,” and 
other voluminous poetical and prose works which 
had a great vogue in the latter half of the 
eighteenth century. The celebrity which they 
enjoyed was in part due to the attractive style (at 
least according to the taste of that day) in which — 
the author’s extensive, though not very profound, - 
- ~~ 
1 The references throughout this notice are to the Life a and 
Letters, unless the contrary is expressly stated. ~ rE 
