{"id":3861,"date":"2016-12-12T10:00:51","date_gmt":"2016-12-12T10:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.reading.ac.uk\/crg\/?p=3861"},"modified":"2016-12-12T10:00:51","modified_gmt":"2016-12-12T10:00:51","slug":"adventbotany-2016-day-12-erasmus-darwin-born-12-december-1731-bringing-botanical-love-and-joy-to-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/herbarium\/2016\/12\/12\/adventbotany-2016-day-12-erasmus-darwin-born-12-december-1731-bringing-botanical-love-and-joy-to-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"AdventBotany 2016 &#8211; Day 12: Erasmus Darwin born 12 December 1731 bringing botanical love and joy to the world!"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><strong>By <a href=\"http:\/\/drmgoeswild.com\/adventbotany-2016\/\">Dr M<\/a><\/strong><\/h1>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3863\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3863\" style=\"width: 248px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.reading.ac.uk\/crg\/adventbotany-2016-day-12-erasmus-darwin-born-12-december-1731-bringing-botanical-love-and-joy-to-the-world\/erasmus_darwin_-_joseph_wright_-_1770-248x300\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3863\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3863\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.reading.ac.uk\/crg\/files\/2016\/12\/Erasmus_Darwin_-_Joseph_Wright_-_1770-248x300.jpg\" alt=\"Erasmus Darwin\" width=\"248\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3863\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Erasmus Darwin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Advent botany couldn\u2019t be advent botany without botanists \u2013 and amongst them are a number of significant \u201cadvent botanists\u201d, those born in the days of advent and Dr M\u2019s first offering on this theme is Erasmus Darwin.<\/p>\n<p>Born 12 December 1731,\u00a0Erasmus is best known as grandfather of Charles Darwin. But Erasmus made significant scientific and other contributions in his own right as one of the key thinkers of the English Midlands Enlightenment (<a title=\"The Lunar Society\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lunarsociety.org.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Lunar Society<\/a>), he was also a natural philosopher, physiologist, slave-trade abolitionist, inventor and poet.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>A larger-than life character in more ways than one, the life of Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) was quite the botanical soap opera, you really couldn\u2019t make it up!<\/p>\n<p>Amongst his numerous achievements:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Married twice, had an in-between mistress, fourteen children and dozens of lifelong friends;<\/li>\n<li>Was asked by King George III to be his personal physician, but declined;<\/li>\n<li>Invented a<em>\u00a0<\/em>shed-load of stuff including \u00a0a speaking machine, a copying machine and the steering technique used in modern cars;<\/li>\n<li>Wrote\u00a0<em>The Loves of the Plants<\/em>\u00a0which includes\u00a0vivid and highly sexualised poetry about reproduction in plants;<\/li>\n<li>Was passionate about the abolition of slavery, wrote a treatise on the education of girls and was friendly, generous, sociable and full of teasing humour;<\/li>\n<li>Paid little regard to authority and prescribed sex as a cure for hypochondria;<\/li>\n<li>Expounded a<em>\u00a0<\/em>coherent theory of evolution of species from a common ancestor in a poem written in 1789;<\/li>\n<li>He enjoyed food so much he had a semi-circle cut out of his dining-table to accommodate his bulk!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>His home in Lichfield, <a title=\"Erasmus Darwin House\" href=\"http:\/\/www.erasmusdarwin.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Erasmus Darwin House<\/a>, is now a museum dedicated to his life\u2019s work and well worth a visit.<\/p>\n\n<p>Amongst his botanical achievements Darwin formed the Lichfield Botanical Society\u00a0to translate the works of the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus\u00a0from Latin into English. This took seven years resulting in two publications:\u00a0<em>A System of Vegetables<\/em>\u00a0between 1783 and 1785, and\u00a0<em>The Families of Plants<\/em>\u00a0in 1787. In these volumes, Darwin coined many of the English names of plants that we use today.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3868\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3868\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.reading.ac.uk\/crg\/adventbotany-2016-day-12-erasmus-darwin-born-12-december-1731-bringing-botanical-love-and-joy-to-the-world\/botanicgarden-300x199\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3868\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3868\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.reading.ac.uk\/crg\/files\/2016\/12\/BotanicGarden-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"Loves of Plants\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3868\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Loves of Plants<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Darwin then wrote <em>The Loves of Plants<\/em> a long poem, which was a popular rendering of Linnaeus\u2019 works. Darwin also wrote Economy of Vegetation, and together the two were published as <em>The Botanic Garden<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Darwin\u2019s final long poem,\u00a0<em>The Temple of Nature<\/em>\u00a0was published posthumously in 1803. The poem was originally titled\u00a0<em>The Origin of Society<\/em>. It is considered his best poetic work. It centres on his own conception of evolution. The poem traces the progression of life from micro-organisms to civilised society. The poem contains a passage that describes the struggle for existence later made famous by grandson Charles Darwin in <em>The Origin of Species.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>For the full story see DrM <a href=\"http:\/\/drmgoeswild.com\/adventbotany-2016\/\">Daughter of Advent Botany<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Further reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Desmond King-Hele\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Erasmus-Darwin-Life-Unequalled-Achievement\/dp\/1900357089\"><em>Erasmus Darwin: a Life of Unequalled Achievement<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Jenny Uglow:<em>\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/s\/?ie=UTF8&amp;keywords=jenny+uglow+lunar+men&amp;tag=googhydr-21&amp;index=aps&amp;hvadid=38882792994&amp;hvpos=1o1&amp;hvexid=&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvrand=14201033181276633334&amp;hvpone=&amp;hvptwo=&amp;hvqmt=b&amp;hvdev=c&amp;ref=pd_sl_34c7da35nz_b\">The Lunar Men: The Friends Who Made the Future, 1730-1810<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>All images for this post provided by Dr M.<\/p>\n<p>Check out Dr M\u2019s previous posting on Erasmus Darwin with lots of extra information and links <a title=\"Dr M on Erasmus Darwin\" href=\"http:\/\/drmgoeswild.com\/great-botanists-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Dr M Advent botany couldn\u2019t be advent botany without botanists \u2013 and amongst them are a number of significant \u201cadvent botanists\u201d, those born in the days of advent and&#8230;<a class=\"read-more\" href=\"&#104;&#116;&#116;&#112;&#115;&#58;&#47;&#47;&#114;&#101;&#115;&#101;&#97;&#114;&#99;&#104;&#46;&#114;&#101;&#97;&#100;&#105;&#110;&#103;&#46;&#97;&#99;&#46;&#117;&#107;&#47;&#104;&#101;&#114;&#98;&#97;&#114;&#105;&#117;&#109;&#47;&#50;&#48;&#49;&#54;&#47;&#49;&#50;&#47;&#49;&#50;&#47;&#97;&#100;&#118;&#101;&#110;&#116;&#98;&#111;&#116;&#97;&#110;&#121;&#45;&#50;&#48;&#49;&#54;&#45;&#100;&#97;&#121;&#45;&#49;&#50;&#45;&#101;&#114;&#97;&#115;&#109;&#117;&#115;&#45;&#100;&#97;&#114;&#119;&#105;&#110;&#45;&#98;&#111;&#114;&#110;&#45;&#49;&#50;&#45;&#100;&#101;&#99;&#101;&#109;&#98;&#101;&#114;&#45;&#49;&#55;&#51;&#49;&#45;&#98;&#114;&#105;&#110;&#103;&#105;&#110;&#103;&#45;&#98;&#111;&#116;&#97;&#110;&#105;&#99;&#97;&#108;&#45;&#108;&#111;&#118;&#101;&#45;&#97;&#110;&#100;&#45;&#106;&#111;&#121;&#45;&#116;&#111;&#45;&#116;&#104;&#101;&#45;&#119;&#111;&#114;&#108;&#100;&#47;\">Read More ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"__cvm_playback_settings":[],"__cvm_video_id":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[52,53,54],"tags":[29,174,175],"class_list":["post-3861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advent","category-herbarium-rng","category-public-engagement-with-science","tag-adventbotany","tag-dr-m","tag-erasmus-darwin"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>AdventBotany 2016 - Day 12: Erasmus Darwin born 12 December 1731 bringing botanical love and joy to the world! 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