The Life of Erasmus Darwin is the 1879 biography of Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) by his grandson Charles Darwin and the German biologist Ernst Krause. Ernst Krause wrote a paper on the scientific works Erasmus Darwin which was published in the German language journal Kosmos in February 1879. This was translated into English by William Sweetland Dallas as "The Scientific Works of Erasmus Darwin" (pages 130-216 in the original edition), and Charles Darwin added a "preliminary notice" based on material that was in the possession of his family (pages 1–127).