CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN. 353 



garden, and I was allowed to aid him as a servant 

 in most of his experiments. He made all the 

 gases and many compounds, and I read with great 

 care several books on chemistry, such as Henry and 

 Parkes* ( Chemical Catechism.' The subject inter- 

 ested me greatly, and we often used to go on work- 

 ing till rather late at night. This was the best 

 part of my education at school, for it showed me 

 practically the meaning of experimental science. 

 The fact that we worked at chemistry somehow got 

 known at school, and, as it was an unprecedented 

 fact, I was nicknamed ' Gas.' . . . 



"When I left the school, I was for my age 

 neither high nor low in it, and I believe that I was 

 considered by all my masters and by my father as 

 a very ordinary boy, rather below the common 

 standard in intellect. To my deep mortification, 

 my father once said to me : ( You care for nothing 

 but shooting, dogs, and rat-catching, and you will 

 be a disgrace to yourself and all your family.' But 

 my father, who was the kindest man I ever knew, 

 and whose memory I love with all my heart, must 

 have been angry and somewhat unjust when he 

 used such words." 



Dr. Darwin now sent his two boys, Erasmus and 

 Charles, to Edinburgh University. Here, Charles 

 found the lectures "intolerably dull," all except 

 those on chemistry by Hope. His father, evi- 

 dently not being able to determine for what his 

 son was best fitted in life, suggested his being a 

 doctor. The youth attended the clinical wards in 



