ERASMUS DARWIN. 7 



The sons of Erasmus Darwin inherited in some degree his 

 intellectual tastes, for Charles Darwin writes of them as fol- 

 lows : 



"His eldest son, Charles (born September 3, 1758), was a 

 young man of extraordinary promise, but died (May 15, 1778) 

 before he was twenty-one years old, from the effects of a 

 wound received whilst dissecting the brain of a child. He 

 inherited from his father a strong taste for various branches 

 of science, for writing verses, and for mechanics. ... He 

 also inherited stammering. With the hope of curing him, his 

 father sent him to France, when about eight years old (1766- 

 '67), with a private tutor, thinking that if he was not allowed 

 to speak English for a time, the habit of stammering might 

 be lost; and it is a curious fact, that in after years, when 

 speaking French, he never stammered. At a very early age 

 he collected specimens of all kinds. When sixteen years old 

 he was sent for a year to [Christ Church] Oxford, but he did 

 not like the place, and thought (in the words of his father) 

 that the ' vigour of his mind languished in the pursuit of clas- 

 sical elegance like Hercules at the distaff, and sighed to be 

 removed to the robuster exercise of the medical school of 

 Edinburgh.' He stayed three years at Edinburgh, working 

 hard at his medical studies, and attending ' with diligence all 

 the sick poor of the parish of Waterleith, and supplying them 

 with the necessary medicines.' The ^Esculapian Society 

 awarded him its first gold medal for an experimental inquiry 

 on pus and mucus. Notices of him appeared in various jour- 

 nals ; and all the writers agree about his uncommon energy 

 and abilities. He seems like his father to have excited the 

 warm affection of his friends. Professor Andrew Duncan 

 .... spoke .... about him with the warmest affection 

 forty-seven years after his death when I was a young medical 

 student at Edinburgh .... 



" About the character of his second son, Erasmus (born 



1759), I have little to say, for though he wrote poetry, he 



seems to have had none of the other tastes of his father. He 



had, however, his own peculiar tastes, viz., genealogy, the col- 



2 



