The Am-i'xfi-;/ of Francis Gallon 23 



beast were concerned, as readily as when it portrayed an archaeological 

 novelty or displayed the costumes of Greece or Turkey. Typical of the 

 mail is the account he gives of the plague in Smyrna ; instead of flying 

 from the place, he remarks : 



" On the 2nd day we again found ourselves at Smyrna amongst the plague, which 

 had increased, 400 persons having died in our absence. I had now an opportunity of 

 watching the progress of this disorder in several English sailors, who having been on 

 shore, had caught the infection. I also visited the Armenian and Greek hospitals, 

 where numbers were dying daily of the plague " (p. 55). 



At Smyrna also we hear the tale of a gun discharged immediately 

 under the window, which their host informed them was the shooting of 

 another cat by a soldier posted to shoot the cats coming out of the 

 next house where everybody but the baby had died of plague ; the cats 

 being the chief transporters of the infection. Darwin, wanting more 

 experience of the plague, on another return to Smyrna undertook by 

 invitation of the native physicians charge of several hospitals, of which 

 the Greek and Armenian contained each 120 patients. 



"This," Darwin writes, "was a good opportunity to become conversant with the 

 diseases of the climate, and from constant observation 1 found the plague was frequently 

 checked by an active practice of which the Medici of the East were totally ignorant. 

 Intermittent fevers and the Lepra Graecorum are very peculiar in the Levant. Hard 

 eggs and salt fish being the hospital diet, phthisis is most prevalent." 



During the tour Darwin visited Tangiers, Tetuan, and attempted 

 to get into Fez, not then visited by Europeans, but was not permitted 

 to reach that closed centre of Mahommedanism. The strange element 

 in Sir Francis Darwin's life is that he returned home, and after a short 

 practice in Lichfield, settled down in a wild out of the way part of 

 Derbyshire, and spent his days in studying archaeology and natural 

 history without ulterior end 1 ; his place was full of animal oddities ; 

 there were wild pigs in the woods, and tame snakes in the house. 

 Possibly his son Edward's keen power of observation of the habits of 

 animals as exhibited in his Gamekeepers Manual was developed under 

 this environment. But the fragmentary knowledge we have been 

 able to gather of Francis Darwin suggests marked character and 



1 There is a marked tendency, almost an instinct, in many members of the Darwin- 

 Galton stock to lead a leisurely country life, which completely masks their scientific 

 interests. It became dominant for a time in the life of Francis Galton himself. 



