104 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF NOTTINGHAM AND DISTRICT 



Darwin, Erasmus, M.D., F.R.S. (1731-1802). The grandfather of 

 Chas. Darwin, he was born at Elston Hall, Notts. He was educated at 

 Chesterfield and Cambridge and studied medicine at Edinburgh. Failing 

 to set up a practice at Nottingham he moved to Lichfield, where he 

 prospered, and later to Derby. He founded the Philosophical Society at 

 Derby (1784) and his publications included Zoonoinia or the Laws of 

 Organic Life (1794-6), and Phytologia or the Philosophy of Agriculture 

 and Gardening. He had a fertile mind and a wide range of interests in- 

 cluding botany, mechanics and sanitation. His third son, Robert Waring 

 (father of Charles) was a successful physician and was also an F.R.S. 

 Erasmus died at Breadsall Priory, Derby. 



Deering, Charles, M.D. (1695-1749), b. Saxony. Graduating at 

 Leyden he practised for some years in Belford, London and Rochester, 

 and in 1736 settled in Nottingham, where he remained till his death. A 

 pioneer botanist in Nottinghamshire, he produced a Catalogue containing 

 some 840 entries and from which were taken most of the references to 

 Nottinghamshire plants in botanical works published in the latter halt of 

 the eighteenth century. He assisted Dillenius, the then Sherardian pro- 

 fessor at Oxford, to compile his Historia Muscorum. 



Dudley, Dr. Harold W., O.B.E., F.R.S. (1887-1935), b. Derby. Edu- 

 cated at Truro College, King Edward VI Grammar School, Morpeth, 

 and Leeds University. He worked on anti-gas research during the Great 

 War, and afterwards became head of the department of biochemistry at 

 the Lister Institute. He worked on the active principle of the posterior 

 lobe of the pituitary body. He held the office of secretary of the Bio- 

 chemical Society from 1922 to 1924. d. London. 



Flinders, Matthew (1774-1814), b. Donington, Nr. Boston, Lines. 

 From 1795 to 1803 he explored the coast-hne of Australia. He had 

 great natural gifts as a surveyor and became one of the best hydrographers 

 in the history of the navy. His original surveys of large parts of the 

 Australian coast form the basis of modern charts. He was one of the 

 first to investigate errors of the compass due to iron in ships, d. London. 



Franklin, Sir John, F.R.S. (1786-1847), b. Spilsby, Lines. He assisted 

 Matthew Flinders {q.v.) in his observations in the South Pacific and 

 began his career as an Arctic explorer in 1818. In 1819 he traversed 

 North America from Fort York to the mouth of the Coppermine and 

 returned through the Barren Lands barely escaping with his life. Shortly 

 afterwards he was elected F.R.S., and the account of his expedition is 

 one of the most classic of travel books. He led a second expedition to 

 North America (1825-27) and after a period at home and in Australia 

 he set out on his last expedition to the Arctic (1845) on which he and the 

 whole party were lost. He has been credited with the discovery of the 

 North West Passage. 



Frobisher, Sir Martin (1535-1594), b. Altofts, Yorks. An explorer 

 of great fame, he was given an estate at Finningley, North Notts., in 

 recognition of his great national services as a pioneer in navigation. 

 On his search for the North West Passage (1577) he was accompanied by 



