Erasmus Darwin

A life of Erasmus Darwin for which his grandson Charles supplied family papers and reminiscences.

Ernst Krause (Author), William Sweetland Dallas (Translated by), Charles Robert Darwin (Author)

9781108006163, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 24 September 2009

228 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.3 cm, 0.3 kg

The author of this life of Erasmus Darwin, published in 1879, is given as Ernst Krause (1839–1903) a German biologist, but in fact more than half the book is a 'preliminary notice' by Charles Darwin, who explains in the preface that he has written it because of his access to family papers which add 'to the knowledge of Erasmus Darwin's character'. Krause wrote his original article in a German periodical because, in turn, he was intrigued by a reference made by Charles Darwin in the later editions of On the Origin of Species to his grandfather's anticipation in his Zoonomia (also reissued in this series) of Lamarckian theory: 'I thought immediately ... that this ancestor of his must certainly deserve considerable credit in connection with the history of the Darwinian theory.' The German text was translated by W. S. Dallas, who had previously collaborated with Darwin as both indexer and translator.

Preface
Preliminary notice
The scientific works of Erasmus Darwin.

Subject Areas: Evolution [PSAJ]