had been there long enough to entitle him to the
degree of Doctor in Medicine, he quitted Edinburgh, and began his
practice at Nottingham, but soon after (in 1756) removed to Lichfield.
In the following year he married Mary, daughter of Charles Howard, Esq.
a proctor in the Ecclesiastical Court of Lichfield. He was very soon
distinguished for his professional skill. The first case which he
treated with so much success as to attract the public notice, was that
of a young man of fortune, who, being in a fever, was given over by his
ordinary physician, but whom Darwin restored, probably by one of those
bold measures from which others would have shrunk, but to which he
wisely had recourse whenever a desperate malady called for a desperate
cure. His patient, whose name was Inge, was, I believe, the same whom
Johnson, in his life of Ambrose Phillips, has termed a gentleman of
great eminence in Staffordshire. Part of the wealth that now flowed in
upon him, from an extensive and opulent circle, was employed with that
liberality which in this country is perhaps oftener exercised by men of
his profession than by those of any other.

At Lichfield, he formed an intimacy with several persons, who afterwards
rose to much distinction. Of these, the most remarkable were Mr.
Edgeworth, whose skill in mechanics made him acceptable to Darwin; Mr.
Day, a man remembered to more advantage by his writings, than by the
singularities of his conduct; and Anna Seward, the female most eminent
in her time for poetical genius. The manner in which the first of these
introduced himself shall be told in his own words, as they convey a
lively description of Darwin's person and habits of life at this time.
"I wrote an account to the Doctor of the reception which his scheme"
(for preventing accidents to a carriage in turning) "had met with from
the Society of Arts. The Doctor wrote me a very civil answer; and
though, as I afterwards found out, he took me for a coach-maker, he
invited me to his house: an invitation which I accepted in the ensuing
summer. When I arrived at Lichfield, I went to inquire whether the
Doctor was at home. I was shewn into a room where I found Mrs. Darwin. I
told her my name. She said the Doctor expected me, and that he intended
to be at home before night. There were books and prints in the room, of
which I took occasion to speak. Mrs. Darwin asked me to drink tea, and I
perceived that I owed to my literature the pleasure of passi