20 THE DARWIN FAMILY. 



bank, came back again, and said, ' I may just tell you that 



Mr. E has killed himself,' and then departed. It seems 



that it was then a common belief that money withdrawn from a 

 bank was not safe until the person had passed out through 

 the door of the bank. My father did not hear this story till some 

 little time afterwards, when the managing partner said that 

 he had departed from his invariable rule of never allowing any 

 one to sec the account of another man, by having shown the 

 ledger with my father's account to several persons, as this 

 proved that my father had not drawn out a penny on that 

 clay. It would have been dishonourable in my father to have 

 used his professional knowledge for his private advantage. 

 Nevertheless, the supposed act was greatly admired by some 

 persons ; and many years afterwards, a gentleman remarked, 

 ' Ah, Doctor, what a splendid man of business you were in 

 so cleverly getting all your money safe out of that bank ! ' 



" My father's mind was not scientific, and he did not try to 

 generalise his knowledge under general laws ; yet he formed a 

 theory for almost everything which occurred. I do not think 

 I gained much from him intellectually ; but his example 

 ought to have been of much moral service to all his children. 

 One of his golden rules (a hard one to follow) was, 'Never 

 become the friend of any one whom you cannot respect.' " 



Dr. Darwin had six children :* Marianne, married Dr. Henry 

 Parker; Caroline, married Josiah Wedgwood ; Erasmus Alvey ; 

 Susan, died unmarried ; Charles Robert ; Catherine, married 

 Rev. Charles Langton. 



The elder son, Erasmus, was born in 1804, and died un- 

 married at the age of seventy-seven. 



He, like his brother, was educated at Shrewsbury School 

 and at Christ's College, Cambridge. He studied medicine at 

 Edinburgh and in London, and took the degree of Bachelor 

 of Medicine at Cambridge. He never made any pretence of 



Of these Mrs. Wedgwood is now the sole survivor. 



