Erasmus Darwin 1731 1802 Personal Life o 1731

Erasmus Darwin 1731 - 1802

Personal Life o 1731 - 1802 o Early Life n Born in Elston, England n Youngest of 7 n Father - Lawyer o Married Twice o 14 Children n 2 were illegitimate children from an affair with his mistress o Grandfather of Charles Darwin

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

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

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

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

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

Stamen vs. Pistil

The Botanic Garden

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

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

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

Zoonomia

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

The Temple of Nature

The Temple of Nature o Published posthumously (1803) o Considered his best poetic work o Theory of Evolution n Modern life came from simple microorganisms, not divine creation n 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 o Plants breath through tiny pores o o

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

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

References o http: //www. strangescience. net/erasmus. htm o http: //www 3. shropshire-cc. gov. uk/darwine. htm o http: //www. enotes. com/nineteenth-centurycriticism/darwin-erasmus o http: //books. google. com/books? id=s. Uc. SAAAAYAAJ&print sec=frontcover&dq=erasmus+darwin#PPA 13, M 1 o http: //www. kcl. ac. uk/depsta/iss/library/speccoll/bomarc h/bomjune 04. html o http: //www. planetfusion. co. uk/~pignut/Erasmus. html o http: //www. ucmp. berkeley. edu/history/Edarwin. html o http: //www. wikipedia. com