A Brief Erasmus Darwin Bio

Darwin (Erasmus), Dr., poet, physiologist and philosopher, grandfather of the above, was born at Elston, near Newark, 12 Dec. 1731. Educated at Chesterfield and Cambridge he became a physician, first at Lichfield and afterwards at Derby. He was acquainted with Rousseau, Watt and Wedgwood. His principal poem, The Botanic Garden was published in 1791, and The Temple of Nature in 1803. His principal work is Zoomania, or the laws of organic life (1794), for which he was accused of Atheism. He was actually a Deist. He also wrote on female education and some papers in the Philosophical Transactions. Died at Derby, 18 April, 1802.