dressing bell, and hoped dinner would soon be announced.' This was
not mere gluttony; he thought an abundance, or what most people would
consider a superabundance of food, conducive to health. '_Eat or be
eaten_' is said to have been often his medical advice. He had especially
a very high opinion of the nutritive value of sugar, and said 'that if
ever our improved chemistry should discover the art of making sugar from
fossil or aerial matter without the assistance of vegetation, food for
animals would then become as plentiful as water, and mankind might live
upon the earth as thick as blades of grass, with no restraint to their
numbers but want of room.'--Botanic Garden, vol. i. p. 470."[141]

"Professional generosity," says Miss Seward, "distinguished Dr. Darwin's
practice. Whilst resident in Lichfield he always cheerfully gave to the
priest and lay vicars of its cathedral and their families _his advice_,
but never took fees from any of them. Diligently also did he attend the
health of the poor in that city, and afterwards at Derby, and supplied
their necessities by food, and all sort of charitable assistance. In
each of those towns _his_ was the cheerful board of almost open-housed
hospitality, without extravagance or parade; generosity, wit, and
science were his household gods."[142]

Of his first marriage the following account is given:--

"In 1757 he married Miss Howard, of the Close of Lichfield, a blooming
and lovely young lady of eighteen.... Mrs. Darwin's own mind, by nature
so well endowed, strengthened and expanded in the friendship,
conversation, and confidence of so beloved a preceptor. But alas! upon
her too early youth, and too delicate constitution, the frequency of her
maternal situation, during the first five years of her marriage, had
probably a baneful effect. The potent skill and assiduous cares of _him_
before whom disease daily vanished from the frame of _others_, could not
expel it radically from that of her he loved. It was, however, kept at
bay during thirteen years.

"Upon the distinguished happiness of those years she spoke with fervour
to two intimate female friends in the last week of her existence, which
closed at the latter end of the summer 1770. 'Do not weep for my
impending fate,' said the dying angel with a smile of unaffected
cheerfulness. 'In the short term of my life a great deal of happiness
has been comprised. The maladies of my frame were peculiar; those of my
head and stomac