| Description | Letter, written from Derby and dated 18 March [17]85, is addressed 'My dear friend' and signed E. Darwin.
The address panel gives the recipient's details as Mr Richd. Dixon, Herford-end Mill, Felsted, Essex. The subject matter relates to medical and dental advice and Darwin begins by expressing pleasure at Dixon's loss of seven pounds in weight: ' the reason I advised you to emaciate yourself was because I believed your shortness of breath to be owing to some fat about the lungs or heart'. He goes on to suggest that Dixon should acquire false teeth: 'you would find that another consolation, as you would speak easier'. He recommends ivory instead of the horn of the sea-horse [narwhal] and [Thomas] Beardmore in Bolt Court, Fleet Street as a good person to get them from. |
| Administrative History | Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802), a physician, established a dispensary in Lichfield, founded the Philosophical Society at Derby in 1784. and formed a botanical garden near Lichfield in 1778. He was the author of a number of works including The Love of Plants (1789), Economy of Vegetation (1791) and Temple of Nature or the Origin of Society (1803).
Reference: Concise Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 1992) |