X 



SIR GEORGE DARWIN i 



George Howard, the fifth^ child of Charles am 

 Emma Darwin, was born at Down, July 9th, 1845. 

 Why he was christened^ George, I cannot say. It 

 was one of the facts on which we founded a theory 

 that our parents lost their presence of mind at the 

 font, and gave us names for which there was neither 

 the excuse of tradition nor of preference on their 

 own part. His second name, however, com- 

 memorates his great-grandmother, Mary Howard, 

 the first wife of Erasmus Darwin. It seems possible 

 that George's ill-health and that of his father were 

 inherited from the Howards. This, at any rate, was 

 Francis Galton's view, who held that his own 

 excellent health was a heritage from Erasmus 

 Darwin's second wife. George's second name, 

 Howard, has a certain appropriateness in his case, 

 for he was the genealogist and herald of our family, 

 and it is through Mary Howard that the Darwins 

 can, by an excessively devious route, claim descent 



^ Reprinted, with corrections (by the kind permission of the 

 Syndics of the University Press), from Vol. v. of Sir G. Darwin's 

 Scientific Papers. The biographical sketch of my brother is repro- 

 duced in a somewhat abbreviated version and does not contain 

 Prof. E. W. Brown's contribution. 



* The third of those who survived childhood. 



' At Maer, the Staffordshire home of his mother. 



15a 



