garden. This was their official “laboratory” for performing simple experiments as outlined in their copy of William Henry’s Elements of Experimental Chemistry . They analyzed minerals, coins, crystals in various stones and minerals, tea leaves, and the effects of the sun’s rays on various things, using household items like sewing needles to create simple tools.
Equipment was a problem. They started off with a thermometer, fireproof china (courtesy of Uncle Josiah), and a lamp that supplied the flame for heating gases and chemicals. They had vast plans for more, but their penny-pinching father kept them on a tight leash. Arguing with Dr. Darwin was generally pointless. Whenever the brothers did get money from him, they called it “milking the Cow,” and spent hours debating what to buy, drooling in shops that sold test tubes, minerals, blow pipes.
Their favorite occupation was to set off explosions. But they were also ambitious, trying to duplicate the experiments of Robert Boyle, one of the founders of modern chemistry, the author of The Sceptical Chymist . They hoped to isolate a new element, like Humphry Davy, who several years earlier had discovered sodium and potassium and helped identify the elemental nature of chlorine and iodine.
They did succeed in manufacturing nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, first discovered by Priestley. Taking laughing gas was a craze at the time. Charles’s nickname became “Gas.” He also did experiments on the gaslights at school, until the headmaster found out and gave him a lecture, complete with a pull on his ears.
Dr. Darwin had decreed that both of his sons were to follow him into medicine. It was a blow when Ras departed for Cambridge University, leaving Charles behind. For three long, lonely years, Charles struggled on at Shrewsbury School on his own.
Every weekend he rushed home to work in the lab. The two brothers exchanged long letters, Ras offering advice about the lab from a distance. “If the Cow is not utterly consumed at the next milking,” he suggested, “it would be a very good thing to buy as many of the large green, stoppered bottles as possible.”
By 1825, Ras was about to graduate from Cambridge. Now he would continue his medical studies with a year of practical work. Dr. Darwin couldn’t help notice that his younger son was not doing at all well at Shrewsbury. He decided to pull sixteen-year-old Charles out of school ahead of time and send the pair of them to Edinburgh University in Scotland.
The Darwin brothers—together again—were off to become doctors.
CHAPTER TWO
Sickened by Blood
ODDLY ENOUGH, NO degree was required for practicing medicine in Darwin’s day. In fact, Charles, like Ras before him, spent his sixteenth summer as a sort of junior doctor, helping his father treat the poor of Shrewsbury. He had up to a dozen patients of his own, mostly women and children not sick enough for the hospital. He’d note symptoms for his father to identify, then would make up the prescriptions himself. Some potions were iffy at best—a baby with a cough might be given a mixture of opium, sherry, and brown sugar—and harmful at worst.
Dr. Darwin was convinced that Charles had the makings of a brilliant doctor. He thought his son had a talent for “exciting confidence” in patients, which he believed was the key to medical success. His son was much less sure about his future in medicine, but one seldom questioned Dr. Darwin.
Now Charles was at Edinburgh University, a hub of science, to study medicine and follow in the wake of his brother, father, and grandfather. It was exciting to be in big, bustling Edinburgh. The first year he hung out exclusively with Ras, attending some of the same lectures, eating meals with him. Ras set a record for borrowing more library books than any other student, and Charles was close behind. He also bought a copy of A Naturalist’s Companion by George Graves, to use along the Scottish seaside. The brothers went for
Equipment was a problem. They started off with a thermometer, fireproof china (courtesy of Uncle Josiah), and a lamp that supplied the flame for heating gases and chemicals. They had vast plans for more, but their penny-pinching father kept them on a tight leash. Arguing with Dr. Darwin was generally pointless. Whenever the brothers did get money from him, they called it “milking the Cow,” and spent hours debating what to buy, drooling in shops that sold test tubes, minerals, blow pipes.
Their favorite occupation was to set off explosions. But they were also ambitious, trying to duplicate the experiments of Robert Boyle, one of the founders of modern chemistry, the author of The Sceptical Chymist . They hoped to isolate a new element, like Humphry Davy, who several years earlier had discovered sodium and potassium and helped identify the elemental nature of chlorine and iodine.
They did succeed in manufacturing nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, first discovered by Priestley. Taking laughing gas was a craze at the time. Charles’s nickname became “Gas.” He also did experiments on the gaslights at school, until the headmaster found out and gave him a lecture, complete with a pull on his ears.
Dr. Darwin had decreed that both of his sons were to follow him into medicine. It was a blow when Ras departed for Cambridge University, leaving Charles behind. For three long, lonely years, Charles struggled on at Shrewsbury School on his own.
Every weekend he rushed home to work in the lab. The two brothers exchanged long letters, Ras offering advice about the lab from a distance. “If the Cow is not utterly consumed at the next milking,” he suggested, “it would be a very good thing to buy as many of the large green, stoppered bottles as possible.”
By 1825, Ras was about to graduate from Cambridge. Now he would continue his medical studies with a year of practical work. Dr. Darwin couldn’t help notice that his younger son was not doing at all well at Shrewsbury. He decided to pull sixteen-year-old Charles out of school ahead of time and send the pair of them to Edinburgh University in Scotland.
The Darwin brothers—together again—were off to become doctors.
CHAPTER TWO
Sickened by Blood
ODDLY ENOUGH, NO degree was required for practicing medicine in Darwin’s day. In fact, Charles, like Ras before him, spent his sixteenth summer as a sort of junior doctor, helping his father treat the poor of Shrewsbury. He had up to a dozen patients of his own, mostly women and children not sick enough for the hospital. He’d note symptoms for his father to identify, then would make up the prescriptions himself. Some potions were iffy at best—a baby with a cough might be given a mixture of opium, sherry, and brown sugar—and harmful at worst.
Dr. Darwin was convinced that Charles had the makings of a brilliant doctor. He thought his son had a talent for “exciting confidence” in patients, which he believed was the key to medical success. His son was much less sure about his future in medicine, but one seldom questioned Dr. Darwin.
Now Charles was at Edinburgh University, a hub of science, to study medicine and follow in the wake of his brother, father, and grandfather. It was exciting to be in big, bustling Edinburgh. The first year he hung out exclusively with Ras, attending some of the same lectures, eating meals with him. Ras set a record for borrowing more library books than any other student, and Charles was close behind. He also bought a copy of A Naturalist’s Companion by George Graves, to use along the Scottish seaside. The brothers went for