REVIEWS. 
69 
deal with the meteors of the great shower of November, and those which 
seem associated with the orbit of Biela’s comet. The meteor-shower which 
it was anticipated would be seen when the Earth passed nearest to the orbit 
of the comet, was not seen, either in November 1878 or November — 
December, 1879. 
The remainder of the volume is devoted to essays of less strictly scientific 
nature, but in most cases of most interesting character. Those on ‘ Artificial 
Somnambulism/ ‘ Hereditary Traits/ and ‘ Mechanical Chess-players/ are 
especially well worth reading. On the whole, like most of Mr. Proctor’s 
books, it is one which is far more easily taken up than laid down. 
ERASMUS DARWIN. * 
T HE student of English books dating back some thirty or forty years and 
upwards has doubtless often met with fine if rather magniloquent 
verses quoted from a work called the Botanic Garden. This was a didactic 
poem of no small merit, in whatever light we look at it. Published 
originally in 1790 and 1791, its author was Dr. Erasmus Darwin, of 
Lichfield, a man of considerable repute in his day, and who would have 
occupied a far higher niche in the temple of Fame if his contemporaries had 
been in the least degree capable of appreciating his qualities. As most 
naturalists have long been aware, this Dr. Darwin was the originator of a 
conception of organized nature on the basis of evolution, which met with 
but contemptuous treatment from the author’s countrymen. He has also 
a claim on our gratitude as having been the grandfather of Charles Darwin, 
whose influence upon the progress of Natural History has probably been 
greater than that of any other writer since the days of Linnaeus. 
A short note on his grandfather’s biological views inserted by Mr. Darwin 
in the later editions of the Origin of Species excited the curiosity of a 
German savant, Dr. Ernst Krause, to know something more of the opinions 
entertained by Erasmus Darwin ; and the result of a careful study of the 
writings of the latter on the part of Dr. Krause, was the publication in 
Kosmos of February last of a. biographical and critical essay, a translation of 
the latter part of which, preceded by a biographical notice from his own 
hand, is now given to the public by Mr. Darwin. 
Dr. Krause speaks of Erasmus Darwin as follows : — 1 This man, equally 
eminent as philanthropist, physician, naturalist, philosopher, and poet, is far 
less known and valued by posterity than he deserves, in comparison with 
other persons w r ho occupy a similar rank. It is true that what is perhaps 
the most important of his many-sided endowments, namely, his broad view of 
the philosophy of nature, was not intelligible to his contemporaries ; it is only 
now, after the lapse of a hundred years, that by the labours of one of his 
descendants we are in a position to estimate at its true value the wonderful 
perceptivity, amounting almost to divination, that he displayed in the 
* Erasmus Danvin. By Ernst Krause. Translated from the German 
by W. S. Dallas. With a preliminary notice by Charles Darwin. Small Svo. 
London, John Murray, 1879. 
