Erasmus Darwin1731 - 1802

Personal Life 1731 - 1802 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

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

Zoonomia (1794, 1796) – most important book 1st 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

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 wavesWas 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 http://www.strangescience.net/erasmus.htm http://www3.shropshire-cc.gov.uk/darwine.htm http://www.enotes.com/nineteenth-century-criticism/

darwin-erasmus http://books.google.com/books?

id=sUcSAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=erasmus+darwin#PPA13,M1

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/iss/library/speccoll/bomarch/bomjune04.html

http://www.planetfusion.co.uk/~pignut/Erasmus.html http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/Edarwin.html http://www.wikipedia.com