1802.] 
In the fecond vol. of Zoonomia (Clafs 
ive r, 2, 15. Art. Podagra,) Dr. Darwin 
relates, that about five-and-forty years 
ago he was firft feized with a fit of the 
gout; in confequence of which he totally 
abftained from all fermented liquors, not 
even tafting {mall-beer, or a drop of any 
kind of wine: but he ate plentifully of 
flefh-meat, and all kinds of vegetables 
and fruit, ufing, for his drink at meals, 
chiefly water alone, or cream and water, 
with tea and coffee between them, as 
ufual. By this abftinence from fermented 
liquors he kept quite free from the gout 
for fifteen or fixteen years, and from fome 
other complaints to which he had been 
fubjeét; he then indulged himfelf occa- 
fionally. with a little wine and water, 
cyder and water, &c. but was fpeedily ad- 
monifhed into his former temperance, by 
a paroxyfin of the gout. He was in the 
habit of eating a large quantity of food, 
and his ftomach poffeffed a {trong power of 
digeftion; his advice frequently was ‘¢ Eat, 
eat, eat, as muchas you can;’’ but he 
took every opportunity to imprefs a dread 
of all fermented liquors on the minds of 
his patients, whofe difeafes he was too 
ready to reprefent as originating in the 
frequent ufe of them. 
In the ‘* Botanic Garden’? (Part II. 
Canto iv. 357, &c.) Dr. Darwin has taken 
an opportunity to exprefs his ftrong anti- 
pathy againft fermented liquors, by com- 
paring their effects to that of the Prome- 
thean fire :—*‘* The ancient ftory of Pro- 
metheus, who concealed in his bofom the 
fire he had ftolen, and afterwards had a 
vulture perpetually gnawing his liver, 
aftords fo apt an allegory for the effects of 
drinking fpirituous liquors, that one fhould 
be induced to think the art of diftillation, 
as well as fome other chemical proceffes 
{fuch as calcining gold), had been known 
in times of great antiquity, and loft again. 
The {wallowing drams cannot be better 
reprefented in hieroglyphic language than 
by taking fire into one’s bofom; and cer- 
tain it is, that the general effect of drink- 
ing fermented or {pirituous liquors is an in- 
flamed, {chirrous, or paralytic liver, with 
its various critical or confequential difeafes, 
as leprous eruptions on the face, gout, 
droply, epileply, infanity.”’ . 
In the very brief and hafty memoir 
which we are now compiling, it is not to 
be expected that we fhould differt on the 
genius and writings of Dr. Darwin: the 
various productions of his fanciful and 
philofophical pen have long fiace been ex- 
poled to public criticifm, and received an 
MonrtTuiy Maa,.No., 87. 
Biographical Memoirs of the late Dr. Darwin. 
459 
ample fhare, as well of obloquy as ap- 
plaufe. Still, however, in the biographi- 
cal fketch of a man, the incidents of 
whofe private life are incrinfically unim- 
portant, and acquire an intereft only from 
the literary luftre which adorns his cha- 
racter, it may not be irrelevant to rifk a 
few remarks on the nature of thofe claims 
from which his celebrity is derived. 
There are three points of view in which 
the literary character of Dr. Darwin mof 
obvioufly prefents itfelf:—Firft, As a 
Medical Philofopher—Secondly, as a Phi- 
—lofophical Agricultor—And thirdly, As 
a Poet. 
I. The pretenfions of Dr. Darwin to 
high rank as a MeDiCAL PHILOSOPHER 
will, of courfe, bottom themfelves in the 
merits, numerous and folid as they are, 
of the great work which he gave to the 
world in the year 1794. In whichever 
point of view the Zoonomia fhall be 
confidered, whether as a mere repofitory 
of curious natural and medical facts, or 
as a fcheme and fyftem of pathological 
and phyfiological difquifition,. is probably 
matter of trifling import, fo far as the re~ 
putation of its author is concerned, By 
either mode of appretiation it is, unquel- 
tionably, a noble effort of human labour 
or of human wit. Aion | 
In a work, indeed, fo varied, fo com- 
plicated, fo exteaofive, it is an eafy tafk, 
and requiring no extraordinary powers of 
perception, to difcover many lapfes in the 
defign and execution: but when we call 
to mind the vaftnefs of the whole fabric, 
the bold originality of the plan upon 
which it is conftruéted, the curious na- 
ture and beautiful arrangement of the ma- 
terials which compofe it, the elegance of 
all its ornamental, and the folidity of very. 
many of its ufeful parts, we cannot he- 
fitate to affign to its contriver the merit of ' 
uncommon tafte, uncommon perfeverance, 
and uncommon ikill. 
To juttity the panegyric which we haye 
now ventured to pronouce, it may feem 
reafonable to expect that we fliould pre- 
fent to our readers ananalyfis of the fyftem 
invented by Dr. Darwin, in order ‘* to 
reduce the facts belonging to ANIMAL 
Lire into claffes, orders, genera, and 
fpecies; and, by comparing them with 
each other, to unravel the theory of 
difeafes.”” Such, however, is the extent 
of, and fo diverfified are the topics em- 
braced by, his plan, that barely to enu- 
merate the refpeéctive titles of the feveral 
fections into which it is broken, would be 
greaily to excecd the comparatively fcanty 
3 0 limits 
