Charles Darwin

1809–1882

role:British naturalist; originator of the theory of evolution by natural selection; long-term patient of Dr James Manby Gully's Malvern water-cure establishment

connection:Darwin, suffering chronic vomiting and stomach complaints for years, first went to Gully's Malvern establishment in March 1849, staying three months with his wife Emma and their children, and returned repeatedly over the following years; he reported feeling markedly better under the regimen (Ullman, 2009). Gully treated him with hydropathic applications and also gave him homeopathic medicines, of which Darwin was privately skeptical even while crediting the water cure (Ullman, 2009). In 1851, Darwin brought his eldest daughter Annie, then 10, to Malvern to consult Gully; Gully predicted she would recover, but she died there on 23 April 1851, with Emma Darwin, heavily pregnant, unable to travel to be at her side (Darwin Correspondence Project; Ullman, 2009).

confirmed:yes

APPEARS IN CASES

gully-malvern-water-cure-1842-1872 patient

EXTERNAL REFERENCES

NOTES

Charles Darwin (12 February 1809 to 19 April 1882) is best known as the naturalist who established the theory of evolution by natural selection. From 1849 he was also one of Dr James Manby Gully’s regular patients at Malvern, drawn by Gully’s 1846 book after years of unresolved stomach illness, and he returned to hydropathic treatment (at Malvern and, later, under Dr Edward Lane) repeatedly through the 1850s and 1860s. His family’s stay at Malvern in the spring of 1851 ended in tragedy: his eldest daughter Annie, brought there for Gully’s care, died of a feverish illness at age ten, an event Darwin recorded in a handwritten memorial the following week (Darwin Correspondence Project).