in his speech, a defect which is in general painful to others; but the Doctor repaid his auditors so well for making them wait for his wit or for his knowledge, that he seldom found them impatient.”
Erasmus’ son Robert, the father of the famous Charles Darwin, himself a person who stuttered, related what has become a well-known anecdote about his father’s speech:
“A young man once asked him in, as he thought, an offensive manner, whether he did not find stammering very convenient. He answered, ‘No, sir, it gives me time for reflection, and saves me from asking impertinent questions.’” Robert thought that his father’s best communication skills were his conversational prowess and his talent of explaining abstruse topics intelligibly.
Robert Darwin (1776 – 1848), who followed in the family tradition of medicine, had issues with stuttering throughout his life, but not to the extent of his father. Charles Darwin: Victorian Mythmaker, a 2017 biography by A. N. Wilson, compared Robert Darwin to his father Erasmus, citing their lifelong struggles with stammering. Wilson wrote of Robert, “Like his father, he was huge – tall and fat – with a stammer.”
"...(stuttering) gives me time for reflection, and saves me from asking impertinent questions.’”
- Erasmus Darwi
In addition to his son Robert, Erasmus Darwin's oldest son, Charles Darwin (1758-1778) for whom Robert named his famous son in 1809, died at age 19 while a medical student at the University of Edinburgh. Like his father, this Charles Darwin was a person who stuttered. Erasmus thought that his son could gain fluency by learning the French language.
After showing signs of fluency through private
lessons, the eight year-old Darwin was sent to Paris with a private French tutor. While in France, he was only allowed to speak French. After a six month stay in Paris, he became totally fluent while conversing in French, but upon return to England he still could
34
not speak fluently in English. Charles Darwin's stuttering persisted until the time of his death at age 19 on May 15, 1778, from a cut he sustained during an autopsy while a medical student at the University of Edinburgh.
Erasmus painfully remembered how he had difficulties at school due to his stuttering, and wanted to help his two sons who shared his speech problem. He was relieved, at least, that the level of the stuttering in his sons Charles and Robert was not as severe as his, and that Charles seemed to some degree to have been helped by his unique speech therapy immersion in the French language in France.
The stuttering of the famous Charles Waring Darwin (1809 - 1882) was not as pronounced as that of his grandfather or Uncle Charles. Similar to that of his father Robert, Charles Darwin’s stuttering was labeled during his lifetime as a “slight stammer.” It was widely noticed that words that began with the letter “W” gave him the most trouble.
Erasmus Darwin
continued on page 35
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47
