Erasmus Darwin

Erasmus Darwin (December 12,1731 – April 18,1802) trained as a physician and wrote extensively on medicine and botany, as well as poetry. He lived in Birmingham and Lichfield, England. He was one of the founder members of the Lunar Society. He was a member of the Darwin-Wedgwood family, most famously including his grandson, Charles Darwin.

Zoönomia

His most important scientific work is his Zoönomia (1794–1796), which contains a system of pathology, and a treatise on "generation," in which he, in the words of his famous grandson, Charles Robert Darwin, anticipated the views of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, who in turn is regarded to have foreshadowed theory of evolution. The essence of his views is contained in the following passage, which he follows up with the conclusion that one and the same kind of living filaments is and has been the cause of all organic life:

Related Topics:
Zoönomia - Pathology - Generation - Charles Robert Darwin - Jean-Baptiste Lamarck - Theory of evolution

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Would it be too bold to imagine that, in the great length of time since the earth began to exist, perhaps millions of ages before the commencement of the history of mankind would it be too bold to imagine that all warm-blooded animals have arisen from one living filament, which the great First Cause endued with animality, with the power of acquiring new parts, attended with new propensities, directed by irritations, sensations, volitions and associations, and thus possessing the faculty of continuing to improve by its own inherent activity, and of delivering down these improvements by generation to its posterity, world without end!

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Zoönomia is widely considered to foreshadow the pre-Darwinian theories of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, and maybe even the theory of evolution formulated by his grandson Charles Darwin. Another of his grandsons was Francis Galton.

Related Topics:
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck - Theory of evolution - Charles Darwin - Francis Galton

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