When I use a word . . . Alumni of the Edinburgh Medical School 1726-2026: Erasmus Darwin versus William Withering

In 1788, the Birmingham physician William Withering was consulted by an apothecary in Wellington, Shropshire, about the case of a woman, Mrs Houlston, whom Erasmus Darwin’s son, Robert Darwin, a medical practitioner in Shrewsbury, had attended the day before. Withering thought that Darwin’s prescription had been inappropriate and changed it. Robert reacted angrily, and a vituperative correspondence followed. Erasmus, Robert’s father, also medically qualified, may have been involved in the affair, by urging his son to attack Withering and by helping him to write his letters. Erasmus may have had good reason for wanting to damage Withering’s reputation. Although all three of them were alumni of the Edinburgh Medical School in the latter half of the 18 th century, albeit at different times, and although Erasmus had recommended Withering to both a post in Birmingham and membership of the Lunar Society, he may have become jealous of Withering’s success as a physician and botanist. The enmity between them had culminated in a dispute over the treatment of a patient in Staffordshire, whom Withering was asked to see after Erasmus had attended her, with little therapeutic success. Withering recommended digitalis, which seemed to have saved her life. Darwin reported the case in 1780, anonymously including it in a posthumous publication credited to another medical son, Charles, and without crediting Withering. In turn, Withering responded by criticising Darwin in his 1785 monograph An Account of the Foxglove . The rift between the two seems to have been irreparable.