After his voyage (1831-1836) on the ship HMS Beagle, when he sailed around the world studying and learning
about biology and geology, Charles Darwin, settled down in England and wrote
the book the Voyage of the Beagle. It
was a bestseller, as far as travel narratives went, and inspired later
explorers like Alfred Russel Wallace to also travel to South America.
Darwin spent the next twenty years gathering material from across
the world, communicating with botanists and zoologists and collectors and
experts in various other fields. He had formed the outline for the theory of
speciation and his proposal for its mechanism - natural selection; but he kept
it secret. But he made a significant reputation as a geologist, writing a major
book on coral reefs. His explanation of the slow elevation of the landmass of
South America - he had seen fossils of marine creatures high up in the Andes -
was enthusiastically welcomed by his mentor and new friend in Geology, Charles
Lyell. Darwin had taken Lyell's book Principle
of Geology, on his voyage and it had helped him understand biology in a way
no one else previously could.
In the meanwhile,
in the 1840s, one of his friends asked him to study barnacles, and explain them
since there was such confusion about them. Darwin estimated it would take him a
month. It took him eight years.
This fascinating side-track to his researches is beautifully
narrated in a book, Darwin and the
Barnacle, by Rebecca Stott. I have been going to the Anna Centennial
Library in Kotturpuram, Madras, for the past few weeks and reading this book.
This library is a treasure house of wonderful books on all subjects and one of
my great delights has been reading Wallace’s books there, among others. But
this time, Darwin.
What fascinated me about this book, were two lateral matters : Darwin’s medical
treatment and his fiscal situation. Darwin was a frequently sick person,
suffering from several ailments of the stomach. He suffered terribly through
his ocean voyages. Land did not improve things. But he was receiving barnacles
by email, dissecting barnacles, discussing barnacles, occasionally going to the
sea to collect barnacles, discovering new species of barnacles, getting
confused by their variety and bizarreness. For a while barnacles were his only
pleasure, besides his children.
Darwin's Water Cure
Dr James Gully, who was recommended by the poet Alfred, Lord
Tennyson, an acquaintance of Darwin, had
some severe but effective methods treatment. One was the wet-wrap ; a wet sheet
wrapped tightly around his body, almost like an Egyptian mummy.
Another was the douche, a French word meaning shower. But this was no simple
shower. A 640 gallon water tank was install on a stage in an outhouse of Darwin’s
house – this let out water through a two inch pipe. This may not sound like
much to those of us who have been soaked in the waterfalls like Courtallam or
Papanasam or Ambasamudram, but Darwin lived in much colder England. One must also
remember that modern plumbing system, with piped water, hot and cold, had not
been invented yet.
The freakiest treatment Darwin underwent, was lamp baths. We don’t associate
lamps with baths! How do you bathe with a lamp? In this system, one sat on a
stool wrapped in towels with a lamp under the stool getting warmer and warmer, until
suddenly sweat poured down like a torrent. This sounds more like cooking than curing!
To top it all, Dr Gully’s water cure included
1. Homeopathy
2. Mesmerism
3. Hydropathy
Gully’s philosophy was that the body's "natural
energies" would cure itself.
Allopathic (Western medicine) doctors today consider these to be nothing
but quackery, with no scientific basis whatsoever. Think about the irony of this
: the world’s most famous biologist was treated by a famous London doctor by
methods that are laughed at today. Of such episodes is made the history relevant
to the common man, more than the wars and wealth and the romances of rulers and
armies.
It was only in the next few decades that such standard practices such as
sterilization, the importance of clean water, chemical pills etc were
discovered. And the invention of antibiotics had to wait until the Second World
War.
A later story is illuminating. American President James Garfield
was shot by an assassin. The doctors tried to extract a bullet by using their
bare fingers! He died two months later, most likely by infection. The shooter was
hanged for assassination, even though, it is quite possible that it was the
doctors’ unsterilized probing that mostly killed Garfield. Closer home, V
Krishnaswamy Iyer of Madras, died of a septic infection when the medal pinned
on him in the 1911 Delhi Durbar by King George the Fifth pricked his skin! This
would be cured by cheap medicine today.
Coming back to Darwin’s treatment. In addition, Dr Gully issued
these orders.
No work
Minimal reading
No writing (except a few minutes a day)
No sugar, salt, rich foods stimulants alcohol or snuff.
Also forbidden : barnacles!
Stott writes that this ban on barnacles was the hardest thing Darwin had to
bear. He was equally appalled at the ban on snuff, but his daughter Annie would
occasionally smuggle it into his study, it seems!
Darwin used his writing allowance to write letters to collect
barnacles from others!
The Curiosity of Englishmen
The sheer variety of collectors and enthusiasts is mind numbing,
and gives an insight into the scientific spirit and curiosity of segments of England’s
population of those times. If Britannia ruled the waves, it was not merely by military
power, naval power or the business skills of its traders – these endeavors played
a significant part in England’s significant role in the 19th
century, which continues today.
James Bowerbank, London distillery owner and sponge collector sent
Darwin barnacles attached to his sponges. Edward Forbes, banker and son of a timber
merchant, followed Alexander the great's Asian route and discovered 18 buried
cities! He explored sea creatures in Lycian coast, where Aristotle had once walked and
wrote books on starfish and jelly fish , became professor of botany at King's
college. Such brilliant collectors and the newly established efficient and dependable
postal system (more on it later) were the substrate of infrastructure that
helped Darwin become such a brilliant biologist. No wonder then, that several thoughtful
Indians in the nineteenth century, welcomed British rule as benevolent and beneficent, a magnificent harness pulling India along into a glorious new scientific
age.
Related Links
1. Rebecca Stott
2. A brief history of Surgery (video)
3. Alfred Russel Wallace (in Tamil)
4.
The Thames and the Cooum
5. Pleasures of a Library
