62 DARWINIANISM. 



his waistcoat pockets, and wide cuffs to his sleeves. He 

 had a conspicuous shirt-frill, with a manyfolded necktie 

 of soft lawn equally ample. He bore a ponderous 

 watch-chain ; and there were gaiters to his extremities. 

 As he grew in bulk and weight, visiting involved a 

 preliminary problem : he could no longer undertake any 

 and all houses as a matter of course ; bare entrance 

 was not always possible for him, the doors were not 

 everywhere wide enough, and he could not always trust 

 himself to the staircase ; it was really a chance that 

 the flooring might give way beneath him. In these 

 circumstancs the services of a special footman, by way of 

 a spy or scout for preparatory inspection and investiga- 

 tion, became a necessity for him. Such bulk and its 

 trial, by attracting attention, could, as his father, 

 Erasmus, might have said, only prove of advantage to 

 him in his practice. Here, too, like his father before 

 him, he was lucky in his start: he disagreed with the 

 eminent Withering from Birmingham proved right 

 and wrote a pamphlet. So, success as a practitioner 

 was his from the outset. Of patients, some were 

 awed by his peremptory commands, others amused by 

 his comic sayings ; and all were won by his kindness. 

 An opinion prevailed that he was avaricious of fees ; 

 but, if true, he was in many respects a man of untiring 

 and unostentatious benevolence. He was remarkable, too, 

 for his love of children. It pleased him to talk with 

 them in his small, high-pitched, falsetto voice. Miss 

 Meteyard says that he had his father's taste for mechan- 

 ical inventions : he made a design of his own for a lamp. 

 -It is her statement also that he took almost as much 

 interest as his father in botany and zoology ; as well as 

 that he, too, made a fine place of his residence, the 

 " Mount." 



Born in 1766, he died in 1848, having continued 



