An example: 1790's Zoonomia, by Erasmus Darwin (Charles' grandfather), whose observations prefigure the concept of evolution.

FORBES: Magazine Article

There was Erasmus Darwin, an enormously fat doctor, Matthew Boulton, a pushy metal-goods manufacturer, and Josiah Wedgwood, the man who turned fine pottery into a commercial goldmine.

ECONOMIST: 18th-century science

She recorded her debt to the daring speculations of Erasmus Darwin, Charles's grandfather, about the spontaneous creation of life, and to the electrical researches of Aldini's uncle Luigi Galvani.

WSJ: Book Review: The Lady and Her Monsters

She also had a view of science that was unashamedly broad, taking in arts, literature and natural philosophy much in the mould of Erasmus Darwin at the end of the 18th century, whose tomes on botany and zoology were written in Wordsworthian verse.

ECONOMIST: Obituary