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Abstract

The paper places the first Charles Darwin in his family context: the eldest son of Dr Erasmus Darwin and Mary Howard. Mention is made of Charles's upbringing and education, with illustrative material taken from his father's writings and from Anna Seward's Memoirs of the Life of Dr Darwin (1804). The part played by Dr Andrew Duncan of the Edinburgh Medical School is established. The award to Charles in March 1778 of the first medal by the Aesculapian Society of Edinburgh is described. The involvement of Dr William Cullen and Dr Joseph Black in the treatment of Charles's fatal infection is evidenced from Erasmus' letters. Attention is given to ‘An Elegy on the much-lamented death of a most ingenious young gentleman who lately died in the College at Edinburgh where he was a student’ which was written jointly by Duncan and Erasmus in 1778. The Elegy's curious publishing history will be glanced at. The paper concludes with a statement of Charles's great promise as a medical student and of Erasmus' efforts to ensure that his son's achievements were memorialised.

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References

Seward

Memoirs of the Life of Dr Darwin. London: Joseph Johnson, 1804:63

Ibid.: pp. 63–4

DAR 227.7.9. Darwin Archive, Cambridge University Library. Quoted in King-Hele D. Erasmus Darwin: A Life of Unequalled Achievement. London: Giles de la Mare, 1999:75

Seward

(op. cit. ref. 1): p. 63

Darwin

‘Life of the Author’. In: Experiments establishing a Criterion between mucilaginous and purulent Matter. And an account of the retrograde motions of the absorbent vessels of animal bodies in some diseases. Lichfield, 1780:127–34

King-Hele

ed. The Collected Letters of Erasmus Darwin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007:99

Darwin

(op. cit. ref. 5): p. 130

DAR 227.8.8. Quoted in King-Hele D. Erasmus Darwin: A Life of Unequalled Achievement. London: Giles de la Mare, 1999:117

King-Hele

(op. cit. ref. 6): p. 132

10.

Darwin

(op. cit. ref. 7): p. 131

11.

12.

King-Hele

(op. cit. ref. 6): p. 140

13.

Darwin

(op. cit. ref. 7): p. 132

14.

Duncan

, Darwin

An Elegy on the much-lamented Death of a most ingenious Young Gentleman who lately died in the College at Edinburgh, where he was a student. London: G Robinson, 1778:3

15.

Ibid.: p. 132

16.

King-Hele

(op. cit. ref. 6): p. 152

17.

King-Hele

(op. cit. ref. 6): pp. 153–4

18.

Darwin

(op. cit. ref. 7): p. 135

19.

Duncan

(op. cit. ref. 14): p. 4

20.

Duncan

(op. cit. ref. 14): p. 6

21.

Duncan

(op. cit. ref. 14): p. 7

22.

Duncan

(op. cit. ref. 14): pp. 12–13

23.

Duncan

(op. cit. ref. 14): p. 13

24.

Duncan

(op. cit. ref. 14): p. 23

25.

Duncan

(op. cit. ref. 14): p. 24

26.

King-Hele

, ed. Charles Darwin's The Life of Erasmus Darwin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003

27.

Darwin

(with Duncan A, Seward A). The Prince, My Son, Our Hero: Three Elegies. Sheffield: Stuart Harris, 2009

The first Charles Darwin (1758–78)

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