Erasmus Darwin

Personal Life   Early Life Born in Elston, England Youngest of 7 Father - Lawyer  Married Twice  14 Children 2 were illegitimate children from an affair with his mistress  Grandfather of Charles Darwin

Interests  Physician  Poet  Deist  Inventor  Anti-slavery  Pro-democracy  Pro-American/ French Revolutions  Owned a botanical garden

Education  Chesterfield Grammar School  St. John’s College, Cambridge  Edinburgh Medical School Unknown if he earned a formal medical degree

Career  Physician (50 years) Highly successful Attended to the wealthy Helped poor at no charge  Declined King George III’s invitation to become the Royal Physician

Lunar Society (1765–1813)  One of the founding members (1770)  Prestigious society of prominent industrialists, natural philosophers, and intellectuals  Met during full moons (most lighting)  Driving force behind England’s Industrial Revolution  Darwin befriended many members including Benjamin Franklin

Lichfield Botanical Society  Translated works of Carl Linnaeus from Latin to English  Coined many of the English names used for plants  A System of Vegetables (1783) Categorized over 1400 plants  The Families of Plants (1787) “Stamen” and “Pistil”

Stamen vs. Pistil

The Botanic Garden

 2 long poems (1791)  The Economy of Vegetation  The Love of Plants  Came from his love of botany  Best seller Incredible reviews Made Darwin a very popular poet

The Economy of Vegetation  “The Love of Plants”  Scientific, social, and political progress  All part of a single evolutionary process – nature and society are one  Humanity evolving towards perfection

The Love of Plants  Descriptions of numerous species followed by extensive notes  Personified Plants Plants are living creatures, like humans  Plants have gender  Evolutionary change and progress occur through sexual reproduction “From the sexual generation of plants new varieties are frequently obtained” This concept also applies to humans and animals

Zoonomia

 (1794, 1796) – most important book  1 st volume - The Laws of Organic Life  Speculation on evolution All species came from one living organism “… all warm-blooded animals have arisen from one living filament, which the great First Cause endued with animality…”  3 main causes of change in organisms Lust, need for security, and hunger

The Temple of Nature

 Published posthumously (1803)  Considered his best poetic work  Theory of Evolution Modern life came from simple microorganisms, not divine creation His grandson Charles Darwin expanded upon this theory, plus natural selection

Divine Creation? Evolution.

The Temple of Nature Organic life beneath the shoreless waves Was born and nurs'd in ocean's pearly caves; First forms minute, unseen by spheric glass, Move on the mud, or pierce the watery mass; These, as successive generations bloom, New powers acquire and larger limbs assume; Whence countless groups of vegetation spring, And breathing realms of fin and feet and wing. “ “

Other Scientific Contributions  A carriage steering system  A model of the atmosphere  Speculated on the Big Bang  Sketched a simple liquid-fuel rocket engine  Plants breath through tiny pores

After Death/ Legacy  Foreshadowed the Theory of Evolution Jean-Baptiste Lamarck Charles Darwin  His ideas became “dangerous”  The Life of Erasmus Darwin, Charles Darwin’s attempt to restore his grandfather’s reputation

Major Works  Evolutionary Works A System of Vegetables The Families of Plants The Botanic Garden  The Love of Plants  The Economy of Vegetation Zoonomia The Temple of Nature  Other Major Works A Plan for the Conduct of Female Education in Boarding Schools The Philosophy of Agriculture and Gardening.

References    criticism/darwin-erasmus criticism/darwin-erasmus  sec=frontcover&dq=erasmus+darwin#PPA13,M1 sec=frontcover&dq=erasmus+darwin#PPA13,M1  h/bomjune04.html h/bomjune04.html   