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Sir Francis Sacheverel Darwin ( 17 June 1786 - 6 November 1859 ) was a physician and traveller who was knighted by King William IV . BIOGRAPHY Early life Francis Sacheverel was a son of Erasmus Darwin and his second wife Elizabeth Collier Sacheverel-Pole. He was an uncle (and Godfather ) of Francis Galton , half-brother of Robert Waring Darwin and a half-uncle of Charles Darwin . He graduated from Emmanuel College , Cambridge . Travels In 1808 , at 22, he started with four others, one of whom was his Brother-in-law Theodore Galton, on a tour through Spain , the Mediterranean and The East . Travelling was not then what it is now, and we come in contact with War , Robber s, Privateer s and the Plague in the diary of this two years' tour in the East. Of the five who started, only Darwin returned alive. The diary of the tour shows a keen antiquarian taste gratified under many difficulties, and it is recognised that Darwin not only loved adventure for its own sake, but was a born naturalist also, whose ready pencil followed a keen eye, where rock and mineral, plant and beast were concerned, as readily as when it portrayed an archaeological novelty or displayed the costumes of Greece or Turkey. Typical of the man is the account he gives of The Plague in Smyrna ; instead of flying from the place, he remarks
At Smyrna also we hear the tale of a gun discharged immediately under the window, which their host informed them was the shooting of another Cat by a soldier posted to shoot the cats coming out of the next house where everybody but the baby had died of plague; the cats being the chief transporters of the infection. Darwin, wanting more experience of the plague, on another return to Smyrna undertook by invitation of the native physicians charge of several hospitals, of which the Greek and Armenian contained each 120 patients. "This was a good opportunity to become conversant, with the diseases of the climate, and from constant observation I found the plague was frequently checked by an active practice of which the Medici of the East were totally ignorant. Intermittent fevers and the Lepra Graecorum are very peculiar in the Levant. Hard eggs and salt fish being the hospital diet, Phthisis is most prevalent." During the tour Darwin visited Tangiers , Tetuan , and attempted to get into Fez , not then visited by Europeans , but was not permitted to reach that closed centre of Islam . Marriage and children On 16 December 1815 he married Jane Harriet Ryle ( 11 December 1794 - 19 April 1866 ) - (later Dame Jane Harriet Darwin) at St. George, Hanover Square London . They had the following children:
Later life The strange element in Darwin's life is that he returned home, and after a short practice in Lichfield , where his father had a practice, settled down at Breadsall Priory in a wild out of the way part of Derbyshire , and spent his days in studying Archaeology and Natural History without ulterior end; his place was full of animal oddities there were wild pigs in the woods, and tame snakes in the house. He transmitted his love of natural history to his son Edward, author (under the name of "High Elms") of a 'Gamekeeper's Manual' (4th Edition 1863), which shows keen observation of the habits of various animals. He was knighted by William IV in 1820 . He was a Deputy Lieutenant of Derbyshire . He died in 1859 and both he and his wife are buried at Breadsall Priory . REFERENCES |
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