Erasmus Darwin, 18th-Century Polymath

Erasmus Darwin was a founding member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, the members of which were referred to as “Lunaticks.” He is here described as a polymath, an 18th-century “natural philosopher” who was a physician, scientist (with interests in botany, zoology, meteorology, chemistry, among others), inventor, and poet who also advanced quite profound evolutionary ideas two generations prior to those of his grandson, Charles Robert Darwin.

Dr Thomas Beddoes: chemistry, medicine, and the perils of democracy

Beddoes lectured on chemistry at Oxford in the years that included the French Revolution, the Terror, and the outbreak of war with France, as well as the success in France of the chemical revolution. The very public dispute between Edmund Burke and Joseph Priestley meant that the latter's study of different kinds of air was politically tainted. Beddoes's democratic beliefs and his support for the new chemistry of Lavoisier meant that as chemist and physician he had to deal with complaints that he was potentially seditious and pro-French. His medical theories, allied to pneumatic chemistry and building on the work of Priestley, were accordingly suspect. In spite of that, he became the physician and friend to several members of the Lunar Society of Birmingham and to members of their family, and they in return became his patrons. His collaboration with James Watt was crucial for his development of pneumatic medicine. The full extent of Lunar patronage, and especially that of James Keir and Thomas Wedgwood, has hitherto not been recognized, but it was the concealed scale of that patronage that made possible the execution of Beddoes's ambitious programme of treatment and research.

The 1997 Wilkins Lecture: Erasmus Darwin, the Lunaticks and evolution

Long ago, I suggested that Erasmus Darwin ‘achieved more in a wider range of intellectual disciplines than anyone since’. This remark has not yet been contradicted; and that is perhaps enough to justify the choice of Erasmus Darwin as the subject of the Wilkins Lecture for 1997. I shall run quickly through his varied talents, comment on his personality and then outline his life and achievements. As an addition to the life story, I shall include glances at those of his many friends who together formed the Lunar Society of Birmingham, so called because it met at the time of the full moon; they are of course the ‘Lunaticks’ of my title. To conclude, I shall look more closely at one of his many interests, explaining how he came to believe in biological evolution (as we now call it) and then had to keep quiet about it for 20 years before eventually championing it in public.

Nature, poetry and medicine in late 18th century England: a unified perspective of Erasmus Darwin

Erasmus Darwin was the focus and embodiment of provincial England in his day. Renowned as a physician, he spent much of his life at Lichfield. He instigated the founding of the Lichfield Botanic Society, which provided the first English translation of the works of Linnaeus, and established a botanic garden; the Lunar Society of Birmingham; the Derby Philosophical Society; and two provincial libraries. A list of Darwin's correspondents and associates reads like a "who's who" of eighteenth century science, industry, medicine and philosophy. His poetry was also well received by his contemporaries and he expounded the evolutionary principles of life. Darwin can be seen as an English equivalent of Lamarck, being a philosopher of nature and human society. His ideas have been linked to a multitude of movements, including the nosological movement in Western medicine, nineteenth century utilitarianism, Romanticism in both Britain and Germany, and associationist psychology. The relationships between various aspects of Darwin's interests and the organizational principles of his writings were examined. His poetical form and medical theory were not peripheral to his study of nature but intrinsically linked in providing his contemporaries with a panorama of nature. A richer, more integrated comprehension of Erasmus Darwin as one of the most significant and representative personalities of his era was presented.