tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31268650619204614362024-03-24T08:36:38.195+05:30Catching FliesOccasional rambles from everyday explorationShyamal L.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14523054793854154400noreply@blogger.comBlogger132125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3126865061920461436.post-51257297021209968392024-03-18T10:45:00.003+05:302024-03-18T15:51:33.476+05:30An old fishing trip<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5ewM7KSP_8vD7E-BXQXNHjzEMpx2Tg0hWpEXnW7UyQF1FW2J2sHA530DkhR2TxKlasWF4p6wyAB3iCJgYD3FjcpV9G0uHKIXRyOnpxMyRuXJqCu1hG5TqK7Y2M8S6Pi-iIRMA7MbwINwU4TfZP3qAhZzbA76BwcE-TA8zisB_a_t0-E7ldkXs1YnZ9j0/s2058/New%20Jerusalem%20Cemetery.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2058" data-original-width="1478" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5ewM7KSP_8vD7E-BXQXNHjzEMpx2Tg0hWpEXnW7UyQF1FW2J2sHA530DkhR2TxKlasWF4p6wyAB3iCJgYD3FjcpV9G0uHKIXRyOnpxMyRuXJqCu1hG5TqK7Y2M8S6Pi-iIRMA7MbwINwU4TfZP3qAhZzbA76BwcE-TA8zisB_a_t0-E7ldkXs1YnZ9j0/w460-h640/New%20Jerusalem%20Cemetery.jpg" width="460" /></a></div> <p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="firstchar">T</span>ranquebar, the Danish version of Tharangambadi had long been on my list of places to visit. So many species from India have the scientific epithet of <i>tranquebaricus</i>, all because of the Danish settlement from where specimens were carted off to Europe to be given binomial names. So on a visit to the place in December 2022 I checked out some of the big names including <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christoph_Samuel_John" target="_blank">Christoph Samuel John</a> who I had been researching both for his Wikipedia entry and for a little chapter on fishes that has recently been published by McGill University Press (see <a href="https://www.mqup.ca/women--environment--and-networks-of-empire-products-9780228018865.php" target="_blank">here</a>). I was rather disappointed to see that C.S. John's grave had either no markings or was possibly damaged a long time ago.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0d/C_S_John.jpg/1024px-C_S_John.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="400" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0d/C_S_John.jpg/1024px-C_S_John.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7d/Christoph_Samuel_John.jpg/688px-Christoph_Samuel_John.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="688" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7d/Christoph_Samuel_John.jpg/688px-Christoph_Samuel_John.jpg" width="215" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">John collaborated with the German fish specialist Marcus Bloch in Berlin, sending him fishes in spirit by the ship load. His notes on the difficulties with finding containers, arrack, and corks is worth examining! Remarkably many of his specimens are still held at the Natural History Museum in Berlin. Bloch named some fishes after John (including the genus <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnius" target="_blank">Johnius</a></i>) and it would appear that John had a native artist draw some specimens. Unfortunately there appears to be no trace of any original drawings by Indians in the archives of the museum in Berlin.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dd/Jerusalem_Church_Tharangambadi.jpg/1024px-Jerusalem_Church_Tharangambadi.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dd/Jerusalem_Church_Tharangambadi.jpg/1024px-Jerusalem_Church_Tharangambadi.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The New Jerusalem Church with<br />the monogram of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_IV_of_Denmark" target="_blank">Danish King Frederik IV</a><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Another collector who worked the region was a man with the impressive name of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagobert_Karl_de_Daldorff" target="_blank">Dagobert Karl de Daldorff</a>. Daldorff died somewhere in Calcutta, I doubt anyone has found much about his life there...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Useful sources</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li>Zworykin, D.D. (2023). <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.3366/anh.2023.0825" target="_blank">Anabas testudineus (Bloch, 1792), climbing perch (Anabantidae), and its discovery in India.</a> Archives of Natural History 50(1):22-34.<b> <br /></b></li></ul></div>Shyamal L.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14523054793854154400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3126865061920461436.post-83140702818893745892024-03-06T08:52:00.001+05:302024-03-06T08:52:04.734+05:30S. C. Mitra on "natural history as an intellectual recreation" <p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="firstchar">I</span> have not written much here recently due to a variety of preoccupations. I however see some futility in writing given the wealth of content that hardly gets read. In recent years, the Calcutta University library has done a great job in digitizing some of the rare periodicals from the past. One of them is the <i>Calcutta Review</i> which provides incredible insights into the period. I suspect that few people actually have examined the contents carefully enough. One of the pieces I recently came across is by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saratchandra_Mitra" target="_blank">Sarat Chundra Mitra</a> about whom <a href="https://muscicapa.blogspot.com/2015/05/bird-lore-from-india.html" target="_blank">I have written earlier</a>. He wrote extensively in the <i>Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society</i> (and I happened to visit the Mythic Society recently thanks to P. L. Uday Kumar). <br /><br />I have decided to place Mitra's 1890 text in its entirety here just to increase its visibility. It was written just seven years after the founding of the Bombay Natural History Society. I was especially drawn to his expression "<i>intellectual recreation</i>" which continues to be particularly elusive even with the explosive growth of wildlife tourism in India driven by a particularly mindless use of the camera by owners who do not seem to be interested beyond pictorial aspects of their subjects.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/96/Saratchandra_Mitra.jpg/766px-Saratchandra_Mitra.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="766" height="400" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/96/Saratchandra_Mitra.jpg/766px-Saratchandra_Mitra.jpg" width="299" /></a></div><hr /><p style="text-align: left;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">Mitra, Sarat Chundra (1890). <a class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.20926/page/n167/mode/1up" rel="nofollow">"The pursuit of natural history among the natives of India"</a>. <i>Calcutta Review</i>. <b>181</b>: 159–176.<br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">Natural History<sup>[1]</sup> pursuits, as intellectual recreations, have never been popular amongst the people of India, whether of past or of modern times. If we search the ancient literature of India, whether of the Hindus or of the Mahomedans, we come across abundant evidence to show that the ancient Indians never attained to any degree of proficiency in either zoology or botany. That the people of ancient India did not take any interest in the varied fauna and the rich flora of this country, or study, or prosecute researches into them, is shown by the extreme paucity of the works in their literature treating of the animals or the vegetable productions peculiar to the country. There are, no doubt, one or two works treating of the animal kingdom in the Sanscrit language; but, strictly speaking, they belong rather to the domain of veterinary science than to that of zoology proper, for they deal more with the proper treatment, training and nurture of the elephant and the horse, than with their classification, their nomenclature, or their habits and habitats. These works, which are so few in number that they can be counted on the fingers of one hand, still exist only in the form of MSS., and there is considerable doubt as to their having been written in ancient times. Accepting them as of ancient origin, they may be said to constitute the sole zoological literature of the ancient Hindus.<br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890"></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">So far as the general literature of the Hindus is concerned, there are references, no doubt, to the mammals and the birds known to the ancient Indians in their principal prose works and poems, but they are few in number. All the zoological descriptions of the ancient Indians are of fabulous creatures, of animals of gigantic dimensions and prodigious strength, of which no living representatives exist at the present day. The Airavata elephant, described by them, might have been the prototype of the Elephas ganesa whose fossil remains were discovered by Drs. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Falconer" target="_blank">Falconer </a>and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proby_Cautley" target="_blank">Cautley </a>in the Sivalik Hills, and have been described by them in their great work on the "Fauna Sivalikensis"; and the gigantic tortoise, which is stated by the Hindu geographers to bear, Atlas-like, on its back, the whole world, might have been the progenitor of the Testudo Colossochelys, whose remains were also discovered in the same region by, those accomplished palaeontologists, and. have been described by them in the work just mentioned. The thousand-hooded Vasuki serpent, described in ancient Sanscrit literature, has its living prototypes in the Pythons (Python Molurus) and in the Hamadryads (Ophiophagus Hamadryas); and the Garuda must have had representatives, within the memory of living men, in the wilds of New Zealand, in the bird known as Dinornis, whose remains have been discovered and described by Professor Owen. Last year, a writer in the "Indian Evangelical Review" attempted to identify the Garuda of the ancient Indians with an eagle (Aquila sp.) found in the Deccan. These are the fabulous creatures to which frequent allusions are made in the ancient literature of the Hindus. On the other hand, Sanscrit poets like Kalidasa, Bharavi, Magha, Bhavabhuti and others, make frequent allusions to some mammals and birds which can very certainly be identified with living species of animals. The Krishnasara of these poets must either be the Antilope Cervicapra or the Gazella Bennettii of modern zoologists, and the mriga or rishya described by them must be identical with the spotted deer (Cervus axis), or the many-antlered Cervus Duvaucelli which frequents forest tracts and swampy regions. The ornithology of the Sanscrit poets includes the following birds : Suka, parrot (Palaeornis cynocephalus); bakula, heron (Ardeola leucoptera or Herodias Alba); marala, swan (Cygnus olor); Chakravaka (Caccabis chukor); kokila, cuckoo (Cuculus Indica); rajhansa, goose (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruddy_shelduck" target="_blank">Tadorna rutila</a>), The fishes described by the Sanscrit writers are mostly identical with species living at the present (jay, though the nakua described by them may either have been the Leviathan mentioned in the Bible, or the whale of modern naturalists. The entomological researches of the ancient Indians were confined to the bee, which insect has been described ad nauseam in their works. The Persian and the Urdu literatures, which are, in the main, the literatures of the Indian Mahomedans, contain, so far as my knowledge goes, no works dealing either with zoology or with botany. The stock-subject of Persian ornithological descriptions is the bulbul, which is as great a favorite with the Persian poets as the nightingale is with the English bards. Professor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine_Ball" target="_blank">V. Ball</a> has told us in his "<a href="https://archive.org/details/junglelifeinindi00balluoft" target="_blank">Jungle Life in India</a>," how he came across a book in Lucknow, which purported to be an Urdu work on zoology, but which, on perusal, turned out to be a natural history of fabulous animals.<br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">The botanical knowledge of the ancient Indians was far more considerable than their knowledge of zoology, and among their literature we find some works which treat of botanical subjects. Strictly speaking, however, these partake more of the nature of works on medical botany than on botany in general, for they treat of the diagnoses of plants required for medicinal purposes in the Ayurveda of the Hindus.</cite></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890"></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">The ancient Indian writers on the Ayurveda, namely Charaka, Susruta and others, have given lists4 of medicinal plants, together with their diagnoses, and these may be said to constitute the only botanical literature of the Indians In one respect, these works resemble the works of the older European herbalists, such as Ray, Gesner, Tournefort, &c. Sir William Jones contributed to the "Asiatic Researches" an article on the plants known to the ancient Indians, and the late lamented Dr. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uday_Chand_Dutt" target="_blank">Udoy Chand Dutt</a> also wrote a work on the same subject The favorite plants of the Sanscrit poets are the padma, lotos (Nelumbium Speciosum) the kadamba (Nauclea kadamba} the bakula (Mimusops Elengi,) the kadali, plantain (Musa sp.) the devadruma which seems to be identical with the cheer pine of the Himalayas (Pinus Longifolia), and others. On the other hand, the favorite plant of the Persian poets is the gul, or the rose, "the glory of April and May," just as the daisy, "the wee crimson-tipped flower" is the favorite flower of the British poets.<br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">The science of geology dates only from the year 1790, in which Werner propounded to his pupils at Freiburg, his doctrine of 'formations' of the earth. It was, in the same year that William Smith, an English surveyor, published a 'Tabular View of the British Strata,' containing an account of the secondary formations of England, together with their peculiar organic remains. Being a new science, which owes its origin entirely to European savants, this third branch of natural history was unknown to the ancient Indians.<br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">Thus, from an analysis of the foregoing, it will be evident that— (1) Zoology and botany proper were unknown to the ancient Indians; (2) veterinary zoology and medical botany were, to a certain extent, known to them; (3) their knowledge of medical botany was greater than their knowledge of zoology.<br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">So much for the knowledge of Natural History possessed by the ancient Indians. I will now show that the natives of India at the present day, like their forefathers, show a marked want of proficiency in their knowledge of zoology, botany and geology, and I will attempt to trace out the causes from which this deficiency in Natural Sciences proceeds—a deficiency the more to be regretted, that the natives of India have distinguished themselves in every branch of literature and science except Natural History. There are Indians who have distinguished themselves in law, medicine, and engineering. There are Indians who have betaken themselves to the study of the physical and the chemical sciences, though they have not distinguished themselves by any brilliant discoveries or original researches therein. There are Indians who are distinguishing themselves by their original researches in mathematics. But it is to be deeply regretted that there is not a single native of India who has achieved any distinction by any original researches into, or discovery in, Natural History, or, at least, who has devoted himself to the study of zoology and botany.<br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890"></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">There are, at least, two Bengalis in the Geological Survey of India, who have devoted themselves to the study of geology and mineralogy and they seem to have achieved some sort of distinction by these studies, for they have been elected Fellows of the Geological Society of London and have contributed papers to the Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India There is one Bengali gentleman, connected with the Economic and the Art Departments of the Indian Museum in Calcutta, who takes great interest in economic botany, and has been elected a Fellow of the Linnaean Society of London. The late lamented Raja <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajendra_Mullick" target="_blank">Rajendra Mullick</a> was an ardent lover of animals, and had been a elected a C. M. Z. S (corresponding member of the Zoological Society of London), in recognition of his bountiful contributions of Indian mammals and birds to the Zoological Gardens in Regent’s Park. But no native of India has as yet, studied scientifically the varied fauna and the rich flora of India. Foreigners alone have done so, and the credit of naming, classifying and describing the animals and plants peculiar to the Indian fauna and flora respectively, belongs to European naturalists. It is by European naturalists only that new species of both vertebrates and invertebrates are being discovered every year, and added to the recorded fauna of India; and the researches of European botanists into the Vegetable Kingdom in India have been the means of discovering many plants altogether new to science. All the more credit is due to them for this, owing to the disadvantages under which they labour in the pursuit of these studies. The first of these disadvantages is that, being strangers in a strange land, they are imperfectly acquainted with the country, and with the peculiar haunts of different animals, and the localities where particular species of plants abound. The second disadvantage under which European naturalists and botanists labour, is the climate of this country, which is very trying to their constitutions. Many European naturalists have had their health permanently shattered by prosecuting natural history researches in unhealthy regions. The third disadvantage is that Europeans, ave not the same facilities for observing the habits and habitats of animals and becoming acquainted with the habitats and the properties of plants as the children of the soil.<br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">We are filled with feelings of admiration when we read of the enthusiasm and the love of Science which prompt European naturalists to brave the dangers of unexplored countries, simply for the purpose of studying their zoology, botany and geology. Look at a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Stoliczka" target="_blank">Stolickza </a>making zoological collections in the wilds of Yarkand and in the Deserts of Kutch; or a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Octavian_Hume" target="_blank">Hume </a>collecting birds in the dense, unhealthy forests of the Nicobar and the Andamans; or an Anderson exploring the trackless jungles of Yunan, in Upper Burmah, for natural history specimens. Our feelings border on mute astonishment when we find a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Sulpiz_Kurz" target="_blank">Sulpiz Kurz</a> exploring the forests of Burmah for its forest flora, or a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Haeckel" target="_blank">Haeckel </a>coming from Germany to India for the purpose of studying its fauna and flora.<br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">Notwithstanding the above-mentioned disadvantages, the zoology of India has been scientifically studied and drawn up, and it is to the genius and the labours of such well- known Indian Zoologists as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Houghton_Hodgson" target="_blank">Hodgson</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Houghton_Hodgson" target="_blank">Blyth</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Cantor" target="_blank">Cantor</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McClelland_(doctor)" target="_blank">Mc’Lelland</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_C._Jerdon" target="_blank">Jerdon</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Anderson_(zoologist)" target="_blank">Anderson</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Thomas_Blanford" target="_blank">W. T. Blanford</a> and others, that we are indebted for all this. Since the publication of Jerdon’s "Mammals and Birds of India" and Gunther’s "Reptiles" nearly half a century ago, many species of vertebrates, altogether new to science, have been added to the recorded fauna of this country through the labours of the naturalists above- mentioned, and it is in order to include these discoveries in the body of the Zoological literature of India, that the splendid series of works on "The Fauna of India " are being issued under the editorship of Dr. W. T. Blanford and the auspices of the Secretary of State for India. In the same manner, Hooker's "Flora of British India" includes all the discoveries in the botany of India which have been made since the publication of Roxburgh’s "Flora Indica; " and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_King_(botanist)" target="_blank">King</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Baron_Clarke" target="_blank">Clarke</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Dalton_Hooker" target="_blank">Hooker </a>and others are doing for Indian botany what Blanford, Anderson and others are doing for Indian zoology at the present day. But still, in spite of these discoveries, there are many divisions of the fauna and the flora of this country which have yet to be explored and worked.out, and I do not know that there is a more intellectual and interesting recreation than that offered by these studies for my countrymen to devote themselves to.<br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">There is far greater glory in achieving conquests over Nature, and inducing her to give up her secrets, than in wasting the national energies in empty political agitation. There is ample field in this direction for the exercise of their intellect; and should my countrymen take to these studies, I am sure their researches will at no distant date result in the discoveries of specimens hitherto unrecorded and altogether new to science. The invertebrates of India, for instance, excepting the Rhophalocerous and the Heterocerous Lepidoptera are not well known. Many orders of Indian insects, such as Hymenoptera, Diptera, Neuroptera, &c., are so imperfectly understood, that if anybody were to study them carefully, he would be in a position to add many new species to science. The work of determining, classifying and naming the insect pests of India, which commit so much havoc on crops, and whose depredations result in so much loss both to agriculturists and to the Indian Exchequer, is at present engaging the attention of Indian naturalists, and has been taken up in right earnest by the authorities of the Indian Museum in Calcutta, who have appointed Mr. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everard_Charles_Cotes" target="_blank">E. C. Cotes</a> as the man for this work. The labors of this latter gentleman have been productive of much good fruit, which has been embodied in a number of pamphlets, treating of the habits and the lifehistory of insects most destructive to agricultural produce, and published under the authority of the Trustees of the Museum. But this work is being accomplished almost single-handed, and what is needed for the successful and speedy investigation of the subject is, that there should be a greater number of workers in the field than there are at present, who will collect specimens of insect-pests, determine their life-history, and draw up named lists of them.<br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">No one. can be more useful in this field of investigation than native naturalists, for their opportunities of studying these pests in their native haunts are far greater than those of European naturalists with their scanty leisure and with their pressure of official duties.<br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">It follows as a corollary to this, that the task of determining and protecting the insectivorous birds of India should receive the same amount of attention from Indian naturalists as that of determining and destroying insect-pests. Much has been done in this direction in Australia; and the birds peculiar to the Avifauna of that country which have been found to be destructive to insect pests, have been scientifically studied. Lists of them have been drawn up, and colored illustrations of them, with descriptive letter-press, have been published by the School-Boards of Australia and distributed among Australian schools and colleges. But Indian birds destructive to insect-life are not much understood, and hence there is a great necessity for determining which species are insectivorous and which are not. In this field of investigation, too, there is need of a much larger number of workers than are available at present. Here is a wide field for the prosecution of researches into Natural History by native naturalists. It is little less than a standing reproach to my countrymen that they should not turn to account their ample leisure and their splendid opportunities by exploring the imperfectly-known byepaths of Indian zoology and botany. Mr. E. T. Atkinson, CS. in delivering his annual address before the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1887, observed : "Still very much remains to be done towards studying the Indian Rhynchota, and I believe there are amongst us men to whom the work would be congenial, and who- would spare no pains to make it good. I would now call on such, whether members of our society or not, to take up even a section of the orders untouched, and to aid us by preparing lists, collecting specimens and noting the habits and life-history of the species. I should, be glad to see our Native members take more interest in Natural Science, and thus wipe away the reproach that, perhaps, with the exception of the late Babu Harimohun Mukerji, and one gentleman in Bombay, there is not a single native of India, known outside its limits, for proficiency in either botany or zoology." The late Bishop Caldwell, who was a well-known scholar of the Dravidian languages of India, in addressing the graduates at the Convocation of the Madras University in 1878, observed that he had noticed with great pleasure, the fact that the natives of Bengal and Bombay (alluding to Dr. R Mitra, Rev. K. M. Banerji, Pratapa Chunder Ghosha, Pran Nath Saraswati, Gour Das Bysack and others of Calcutta, and to Dr. Bhau Daji, Prof. R. G. Bhandarkar and Mr. Justice Kashinath T. Telang of Bombay) had taken to the study of Indian literature and antiquities; but he regretted to observe that there was no native of India who had devoted himself to the study of the Natural History of India, of its rich fauna and flora. He went on to say that, should the natives of India betake themselves to these studies, the domain of natural science would be greatly widened, and the means of wresting her secrets from Nature rendered easier, considering that the facilities for studying them enjoyed by the natives are far greater than those of Europeans.<br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">It affords me great pleasure to note that our fellow-countrymen of Bombay are applying themselves more and more to the study of the Natural History of India, for I find that the Natural History Society of Bombay, which was founded in 1883, counts among its members many native gentlemen of that Presidency,<br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">This Society, which has for its main object the promotion of the pursuit of zoology, botany and geology, in ail their branches, is doing much towards the diffusion of the knowledge of these sciences among the people of that part of India. The late Dr. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmaram_Pandurang" target="_blank">Atmaram Pandurang</a>, who occupied the Chair of Botany in the Grant Medical College at Bombay, was a botanist of some repute, though he was not distinguished for any remarkable discovery in the science. Another native Of Bombay—a Mahrathi gentleman, I believe,—Dr. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanhoba_Ranchoddas_Kirtikar" target="_blank">K. P. Kirtikar</a> is also well-known for his love of botanical pursuits, for I find that he lately contributed a paper on the "Folklore of Indian plants" to the "Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society" which, "though not botanical, is of interest as containing tales and legends connected with many of our best known trees and plants."<br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">From the above facts it will be evident that the natives on the Western side of India are applying themselves more and more to the study of Natural History, especially to that of botany, but my follow-countrymen on this side of India are as apathetic as ever as regards these pursuits, whether as a branch of liberal education or as an interesting recreation.<br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">There are chairs of two of the most important branches of Natural History, viz. one of Botany and another of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, in connection with the Medical College of Calcutta, and they are occupied by two naturalists of great repute in India. Lectures on these sciences are regularly delivered to the students of the college in question, and occasionally practical demonstrations are also held by them. But, curiously enough, in spite of these opportunities of instruction, there is not a single native gentleman, either in the Subordinate Medical Service of this Presidency, or in the ranks of the independent medical practitioners, who has any reputation for proficiency in either botany or zoology. There have been native members of the Asiatic Society of Bengal since the year 1832, some of whom have contributed many papers of great merit on Oriental literature and antiquities to its Journal. But, strange to say, not a single paper on any one of the three principal branches of Natural History, written by a native of India, can be found in either its Journal or its Proceedings. Nothing could afford a more striking proof of the apathy of my countrymen towards these pursuits as means of intellectual recreation, than the fact that, though there is a lecturership on geology connected with the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, there is none either on zoology or botany. The cause of this is not far to seek, for the authorities of the institution, finding these two latter branches of science in great disfavour with the native students, have wisely excluded them from the curriculum of studies.<br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">The curriculum of studies prescribed by the University of Calcutta for both the B. A. and M. A. Examinations includes zoology, botany and geology. There are graduates of the University who have taken their degrees in these sciences. There are lecturerships on botany in connection with the Hooghly, the Krishnanagore, the Patna and some other district colleges in the Bengal Presidency, but post of these are filled by native Professors who pretend to teach botany to B. A. and M. A. students, but whose knowledge of the science is confined to its theoretical part, and who, instead of delivering lectures embodying original researches, simply read over the textbooks, and thereby encourage the students to devote themselves to "cramming." It is with the aid of this latter process, by which they learn, by rote, their text-books, that B. A. candidates manage to pass their examination with honors in botany and zoology, and the M.A. candidates to graduate themselves as Masters of Arts in Natural Sciences. But the men who thus succeed in taking degrees in Natural History, take up these sciences simply because it is easier to take degrees in them than in other sciences. Their object is simply to pass their examination and not to continue their studies after they leave the college with a view to promoting scientific research. Hence the men who receive instruction in natural sciences in the different district colleges of Bengal, are devoid of that spirit of devotion to science, of that spirit of scientific research, which are of the very essence of scientific training, and which are the distinguishing characteristics of European naturalists.<br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">I will now attempt to trace some of the causes to which this deficiency of the natives of India in Natural History, and their utter indifference to the study of these sciences are due.</cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">The first and the most important of these causes is that the natives of India are altogether wanting in that faculty of observation which is necessary for the study of Natural History. This faculty is like a pair of spectacles through ‘which we look up, as it were, to Nature and to Nature’s God. The habit of observation is the only means by which we can attain to mastery over the Natural sciences, and the more it is developed and matured, the more it reveals to us things novel and curious in Nature which formerly escaped our notice.<br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">There are the gay-winged insects, the "birds with painted wings," the wayside flowers, with the colors of the rainbow blended in them, and many other objects of beauty in Indian landscapes which delight the heart of a European, but possess no charm for the Indians. No native, for instance, ever pauses to watch the habits of a particular bird or insect, or to examine the structure of a particular flower. They are not imbued with that feeling of pleasure which "the meanest flower that blows" excites in the minds of many Europeans. No native of India feels any interest in these objects of Nature, except so far as they are subservient to his daily uses. But, in justice to my countrymen, it must be said that they are not to blame for this deficiency in the faculty of observation, for something must be lacking; in their mental constitution to make them so apathetic as regards Natural History pursuits. The faculty of observation is awakened in Europeans at a very early age. From their very boyhood, they begin to make collections of butterflies, moths, beetles, shells, and the like; and European children will go to the most inaccessible places to collect rare flowers and ferns. In Darjeeling, European boys will climb the most inaccessible hills for the purpose of collecting ’natural history specimens. The true cause of this love of European children for natural history pursuits is, that they imbibe it from their parents. The majority of Europeans in India, as Elsewhere, are in some sort field-naturalists—lovers of plants and flowers and birds and butterflies. Thus it is that the faculty of observation is often awakened in them in their earliest years; and the home commonly becomes to them what the lecture-room occasionally becomes to natives when pretty well advanced in life. But the contrary is the case with my fellow-countrymen. As few of them take any interest in Natural History pursuits, their children also imbibe their indifference for these pursuits. The poorest of Europeans keep a few flowering shrubs in their houses, but even the richest of natives seldom have a single vestige of greenery in their homes. Consequently, native children' find nothing in the shape of Natural History specimens in their homes to kindle in them that love of animals and plants which is at the root of the study of Natural History. The second cause of the deficiency is, that the predilections of the natives of India are for sciences the study of which requires no active exercise, as, for instance, the chemical and the physical sciences. My countrymen are fond of the pursuit of these sciences, simply because they demand for their study little of that physical exertion which is absolutely necessary for the pursuit of Natural History. The successful prosecution of the latter requires, as a preliminary condition, that animals shall be studied either in their native haunts, or by means of stuffed specimens preserved in museums with the aid of the taxidermist’s art, or from living collections in zoological gardens; that the life history and the morphology of plants shall be studied either in their places of growth, or in the hortus siccus, or herbarium, of a botanical garden; that the geologist, armed with hammer and chisel, shall delve down into the depths of the earth before he can examine the stratification of the earth’s crust, or the organic remains of extinct animals embedded therein. It follows that for the successful prosecution of these pursuits the naturalist must be prepared to lead an outdoor life. The field-naturalist who ransacks the country for Natural History specimens, shooting animals, and collecting plants and fossils and minerals, for the purposes of preserving and mounting them, must be possessed of active habits, without which he will be unable to attain his object. The laboratory naturalist must also be possessed, to a certain extent, of the same activity; for, even in the recesses of the laboratory, skilful manipulation is necessary for the purpose of dissecting specimens and examining the structures of minute organisms. But the majority of my educated countrymen are most inactive in their habits, and lack the iron constitution necessary for the wear and tear incident to the prosecution of Natural History researches in wild tracts of country. Hence largely the deficiency of the natives of India in zoology botany, and geology, and their utter apathy for these pursuits.<br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">There is a third reason why the natives of India are not proficient in zoology. They are possessed of humane sentiments which render them unwilling to inflict pain on animate. But for the successful study of zoology, it is absolutely necessary that the structures of animal organisms should be examined in all their details, and this cannot be done unless the animals be killed. If you wish to study the morphology of a bird, or a butterfly, you must either capture it or kill it. If you wish to study zoology, or that branch of ornithology which treats of the nidifying habits of birds, you must collect the nests and leave the young to perish. But all these processes, as a matter of course, involve the infliction of pain, to which my countrymen are most averse. Moreover, the successful study of zoology requires, as a preliminary condition, that there should be good zoological collections, the making of which necessarily involves the destruction of animal life.<br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">It is partly these humane sentiments towards the lower animals that have prevented my countrymen from betaking themselves to their study. It is precisely these sentiments which made Sir William Jones averse to the study of zoology. In his Tenth Anniversary Discourse, delivered by him in 1793, before the Asiatic Society of Bengal and embodied in the Asiatic Researches, Vol., IV. he gave utterance to them, with his characteristic eloquence, in the following touching and noble words: "Could the figure, instincts, and qualities be ascertained either on the plan of Buffon, or on that of Linnaeus, without giving pain to the object of our examination, few studies would afford us more solid instruction, or more exquisite delight; but I never could learn by what right, nor conceive with what feeling, a naturalist can occasion the misery of an innocent bird, and leave its young, perhaps, to perish in a cold nest, because it has gay plumage, and has never been delineated, or deprive even a butterfly of its natural enjoyment, because it has the misfortune to be rare or beautiful." Further, Professor Huxley, in his essay on "The Crayfish : being an Introduction to the Study of Zoology, " has said that the study of the practical side Of zoology involves much dirty work, for the internal organs of animals cannot be advantageously studied unless they are dissected so as to expose the parts. For this reason, also, Sir William Jones was averse to the study of the branch of Natural History in question. This aversion to the process of cutting open and disembowelling animals for the purpose of studying their internal structure, led him to the pursuit of botany, which he calls "the loveliest and most copious division in the Science of Nature " To this dirty work of dissection, which is necessary for the purposes of the study of zoology, and to which all natives, except students of medicine, are averse, much of their neglect of this branch of National History is due.<br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">The fourth cause of the deficiency is that no special training in these sciences is imparted to students in our schools and colleges. It has already been shown that, though lectures on botany arc given in some of our District Colleges to students who have taken up that science, for either their B. A. or M. A. examination, they are delivered by incompetent men, who know very little of its scientific principles. These lecturers hold no practical demonstrations for dissecting plants, in order to display their internal structure and their minute organisation, nor do they make excursions with their students into the surrounding country for the purpose of botanizing. The case is very different with European lecturers. Dr.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Watt_(botanist)" target="_blank"> George Watt</a>, while he was the lecturer on botany in the Krishnanagore College, and Dr. Gregg, while he filled the same office in Hughly, not only held practical demonstrations in botany, but, accompanied by their students, made botanizing excursions into the neighbouring fields in order to teach them the practical side of the science.<br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">There is no lecturership of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy in any of the colleges in Bengal, except the Medical College, Calcutta, and these, though they are open to both medical and lay students, are in one sense inaccessible to the latter, for they can be attended by outsiders only on payment of fees, at the rate of so many lectures for so many rupees. Recently, however, a class for teaching geology has been opened in the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, and lectures on that science are delivered by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pramatha_Nath_Bose" target="_blank">P. N. Bose</a>, Esq., B. Sc. F. G. S., Assistant Superintendent of the Geological Survey of India. These are only isolated attempts at imparting instruction in Natural History, whereas what is urgently needed is, that it should be systematically taught in our schools and colleges, and that lectures should be delivered on it regularly.<br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">I have now come to the last part (though not the least in importance) of my subject. I would venture to suggest some remedies which, if adopted, are calculated to encourage the study of Natural History amongst my fellow-countrymen, and will, in the end, lead them to devote themselves more and more to Natural History pursuits.</cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">The first remedy is the teaching of the elementary principles of zoology, botany, and geology in the lower forms of our schools. The second remedy which I will venture to suggest, is the publication of elementary Bengali works on these sciences, suited to the understanding of young children, under the auspices of the Director of Public Instruction. </cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">Though a few works on zoology and botany exist in the Bengali language, as for instance the Prani Vrittanta or Descriptive Zoology, and the Udbhida Bidya, or Science of Botany, arid another work on botany written in Bengali by Dr. George Watt, there are no Bengali works on geology proper. The few books on zoology and botany that exist in the Bengali language are taught only in the Calcutta Normal School and other institutions which prepare candidates for the Minor and the Vernacular Scholarship Examinations, these two sciences . being included in the curriculum of studies prescribed for them. But the number of Higher Class English Schools teaching up to the Entrance Standard, is greater than that of the Middle Class Vernacular Schools. Now it is absolutely necessary that the teaching of the elementary principles of these sciences should be made compulsory in the tower forms of our Schools.<br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">The study of zoology has been popularized in England only by the publication of elementary works on the science by the Rev. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_George_Wood" target="_blank">J. G. Wood</a>. It is to the publication of "a series of cheap entertaining handbooks, as novel in design as they are unpretending in their titles, and which abound in both scientific and practical knowledge, most felicitously conveyed that the credit of having made the pursuit of Natural History popular recreation among English boys and girls is mainly due. It was through the noble efforts of the late Professor Henslow that classes in botany were formed in the village-schools of England, and that the study of this science was thereby popularized in that country. It is highly probable, therefore, that if the study of these pursuits be made compulsory in the lower classes of our schools, our boys will become more and more imbued with a taste for them. They should not be taught in the same way as the dry-as-dust details of history or geography are taught The lessons should be made as interesting as possible by being illustrated with specimens and drawings. In the case of botany, they should be illustrated by the exhibition of dried or living specimens of plants; and their structures, and economic uses should be impressed on the students. In the case of zoology, care should be taken to make the lessons interesting by the showing of colored drawings of animals,, such as those contained in the "Plates Illustrative of Natural History" published by Messrs W. and R. Chambers of Edinburgh, and by the relation of anecdotes illustrative of their habits. So, in teaching geology, minerals and fossils should be shown and their properties explained. In this way, and in this way alone, can the study of Natural History be popularized in India.<br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">The third remedy which I would propose, is that teachers should make excursions to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Howrah, to the Calcutta Zoological Gardens at Alipore, and to the Indian Museum. The dry lessons taught at school may be made much more impressive and instructive if the young learners are brought face to face with the very animals and plants, descriptions of which they have read in their text-books. This plan of making excursions to places of scientific interest for the purposes of intellectual recreation, was first adopted by the Institution for Physical Training which was established at Sealdah about twelve years ago, but which no longer exists. The teachers accompanied the students and explained to them the habits of a particular animal, the properties of a particular plant or mineral. The same plan, I am glad to find, is being gradually adopted by many of the schools and colleges of Calcutta. The usefulness of the Calcutta Zoological gardens as a factor in the education of the masses in the principles of zoology, will be evident from the following extract from the Report of the Honorary Committee for the Management of the Gardens for 1888-89 : "A large number of students and teachers from various schools and colleges of Calcutta and its suburbs have, as usual, been admitted free of charge. The Committee have much satisfaction in reporting that the usefulness of the Zoological Gardens as an adjunct to sound nursery education is being recognised by Bengali authors. In Ma o Chhela (Mother and Son), a Bengali book on nursery education, a chapter has been devoted by the author to a discussion on the instincts and habits of animals as they may be studied in the course of a visit to the garden, with a view to stimulating the faculty of observation in the youthful mind. This is very encouraging. In order to afford facilities to intelligent visitors for identifying birds where large numbers of them are exhibited together, the Committee have adopted the plant of putting up colored pictorial representations with the name written underneath each species" In the Zoological Society’s gardens in the Regent's Park, London, there is a lecture-hall where lectures on zoological subjects are from time to time delivered, and these have been republished in the shape of two volumes of "Zoological Sketches" with illustrations by Wolf. In the same way the educational influence of the Calcutta Zoological Gardens might be greatly enhanced if the plan of delivering popular lectures on zoology, illustrated by specimens living in the gardens, were adopted. The inhabitants of this country evince the greatest amount of interest in zoological collections from the sight-seer’s point of view, but their ignorance of the habits of animals is very great. Hence I am sure, the delivery of these lectures would be one of the best methods for imparting to them a more accurate knowledge of the fauna of this and other countries. Most other nations have, from the remotest antiquity, evinced great interest in animals, and have shown a passion for making zoological collections. The Emperor Darius and Queen Berenice must have had menageries, for otherwise the former could not have cast the prophet Daniel into a lion's den, and the latter could not have accomplished the difficult feat of taming the monarch of the forest.’ The ancient Romans, too, had zoological collections, though they kept them, not for the purpose of studying their habits, but of those cruel exhibitions— the fights of wild beasts with one another, or with the gladiators, who "were butchered to make a Roman holiday." Formerly a zoological collection was kept in the Tower of London, and the lions were its great attraction. The travelling menageries of former times, as for instance, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Wombwell" target="_blank">Wombwell</a>’s and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Astley" target="_blank">Astley</a>’s were the only collections from which the "masses" in England derived their knowledge of strange and curious animals. But since the foundation of the Zoological Society of London in 1826, or thereabouts, by Sir Humphrey Davy and Sir Stafford Raffles, and the opening of its magnificent gardens and menagerie in Regent’s Park, the English public have been familiarised with the forms of exotic animals. Collections of wild animals have been kept in Paris since the middle of the seventeenth century, in the Jardin du Roi; and these collections were further enriched in 1794 by the transfer thereto of the royal menageries of Versailles and Rainey. In these collections originated the famous and fine assortment of ferae naturae now kept in the "Jardin des Plantes." Buffon, Cuvier, Geoffrey St. Hilaire and Milne-Edwards have been the presiding geniuses of these collections, and the science of modern zoology owes its origin to them and to their work in connection with them. In Berlin, the "Thier-garten" is rich in the number and variety of its specimens of the animal world.<br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">From the above it will be clearly seen that the educational influence of these collections in the instruction of the "masses " in the principles of Natural History is very great The Calcutta Botanical Gardens at Seebpore, on the other side of the river, is less popular as a place of recreation than the Alipore Gardens, The reason of this is that the former is situated at a great distance from Calcutta, and is very inconvenient of access. On the other hand, the Indian Museum is very popular as a place of recreation, not only with the educated portion of the native community, but also with the lower classes. It is a well-known practice among Bengalee school boys to pay a visit to the Indian Museum, the Calcutta Zoological Gardens, or the Calcutta Botanical Gardens, on the day on which their schools break up for some long vacation. As most of these boys are from the lower forms of our schools, and as such, are ignorant of the history of the vertebrates and invertebrates, and the plants and other specimens exhibited in the Zoological, Botanical and Geological collections of these institutions, a visit to them means only idly wandering through the galleries and the conservatories, without the least scientific interest in the collections being awakened in their minds. If, however, some person were appointed by the Trustees of the Indian Museum to enlighten the native visitors as to the habits of the various animals exhibited there, the history and the economic uses of the various kinds of rocks and minerals in the geological and the mineralogical galleries, and the forms of animal life in pre-historic ages, as illustrated in the palaeontological galleries of the Museum, a visit to the institution would not only be a recreation, but at the same time, be fraught with instruction to them.<br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890"><br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">In the same way I would suggest the publication of cheap guide-books to the Natural History collections in the Calcutta Zoological Gardens, the Calcutta Botanical Gardens and the Indian Museum, written in popular Bengalee; and I am sure they would not only command a ready sale amongst our school boys, but serve greatly to increase the educational value of these institutions.<br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890"></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">The fourth remedy I would suggest is the establishment of a professorship of Natural History in connection with the University of Calcutta, in view of the fact that the three principal branches of Natural History, namely zoology, botany and geology, are included in the curriculum of studies prescribed by that body for the B. A. and the M. A. examinations. As the University of Calcutta is, like the University of London, an examining body, the Presidency College, Calcutta, represents its teaching counterpart, just as the University College in London is that of the latter. Therefore it would be highly advisable to found a chair of Natural History in connection with the Calcutta Presidency College. Should this suggestion be acted upon, many B. A. and M. A. students would take up either zoology; or botany or geology; for, hitherto, want of proper facilities for the study of these sciences has been a great bar to their being extensively selected as branches of the study for the examinations for the higher degrees of the Calcutta University, which in one respect resemble the Natural Sciences Tripos of the Cambridge University. It is mainly for this reason that the number of alumni of the Calcutta University who have graduated in natural sciences is so small; and the few that there are, have succeeded in passing in these subjects either by attending the lectures on zoology or comparative anatomy at the Calcutta Medical College, on the payment of a heavy fee, or by attending the lectures on botany at the District Colleges of the Bengal Presidency.</cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">As biology is included in the curriculum of studies prescribed for the first B. Sc. and the second B. Sc. examinations of the Bombay University, there is a chair in biology in connection with the Elphinstone College of that city. All the universities of Great Britain and Ireland and on the Continent of Europe have endowed chairs of Natural History for imparting instruction in these sciences, and for promoting and encouraging their study. Of the three universities in the three sister presidencies of India, those of Madras and Calcutta only are without chairs of these sciences, and it is my firm conviction that should such chairs be endowed, and should prizes in the shape of appointments in the public service, as subordinate curators in the museums and the botanical gardens throughout India, be offered, a great encouragement would be given to the youths of India to devote themselves to the pursuit of Natural History. It is also my firm belief that if these suggestions were acted on, thousands of Indian students would flock to the lecture-room of the Natural History Professor, and devote themselves in right earnest to the study of these sciences. Apart from the emoluments which would accrue to my countrymen from a pursuit of these studies, in the shape of Government service, another important benefit would result. They would be enabled to do great good in a practical way to their country. The study of the practical side of zoology would enable them—(1) to encourage the acclimatization and domestication of various exotic birds and animals; (2) to improve the indigenous breeds of cattle and farm-stock in the country, especially as the local breeds of the former are fast becoming degenerated; (3) to foster the increase and improvement in the supply of fresh-water and saltwater fishes, which constitute the principal animal food of the natives of India. If they devoted themselves to the study of botany, they would be in a position—(1) to introduce exotic plants, flowers, and fruits into India; (2) to improve the indigenous vegetable products; (3) to develop the vegetable resources of the country, and to introduce new industries. If they studied geology, they would be able—(1) to exploit the mines of India; and (2) to develop the mineral resources, and foster the mining industries, of the country. Besides these benefits, which the study and the pursuit of Natural History would enable the natives of India to render to their country, its study would facilitate and promote scientific investigation regarding the fauna and the flora of India, and enable them to wipe away the reproach that the natives of India are deficient in the knowledge of Natural History.<br /></cite></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890"><br />Sarat Chundra Mitra, m.a., b.l.</cite></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation journal cs1" id="CITEREFMitra,_Sarat_Chundra1890">Footnote [1]: The term 'Natural History' is used throughout this essay in its popular acceptation, as inclusive of the three sister natural sciences—Zoology, Botany and Geology.<br /></cite></span></p>Shyamal L.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14523054793854154400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3126865061920461436.post-43850519232314139902023-08-18T10:57:00.006+05:302023-11-02T07:53:26.370+05:30The Hon. F. J. Shore<div><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_John_Shore" target="_blank"><span class="firstchar">F</span>rederick John Shore</a> is not a name familiar to those interested in Indian birds. A pioneer bird observer and artist, his omission is rather unfortunate. He is apparently still remembered in Dehra Dun by the well that he had constructed there and for being among the "Three Fredericks" associated with Mussoorie (the other two being <a href="https://muscicapa.blogspot.com/2022/07/the-pseudonymous-shikari.html" target="_blank">Frederick Wilson</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Young_(East_India_Company_officer)" target="_blank">Frederick Young</a>). The Himalayan flameback (<i>Dinopium shorii</i>) is named after him, his type specimen was exhibited at a Zoological Society of London meeting by his brother. John Gould commented on him in the <i>Birds of Asia:</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5teeZ7LWUGmN2G2OW06kih9VGOKyYp6R0MZqQ9bLyDMsrdFGpfyTvkDmBnkLbmH5KPa1yHX2AbQhhbbHYr9-rVEVHnbEE81I3AXX2Af_lJCz9moQnqZJpIVR0BFvyLIT4vcoKyGMUQ712LvxKy29Fl4E9N9sAMxV6b8CzFiEfp_Mx5UM7PCdcVJfvbaY/s971/gallo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="670" data-original-width="971" height="442" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5teeZ7LWUGmN2G2OW06kih9VGOKyYp6R0MZqQ9bLyDMsrdFGpfyTvkDmBnkLbmH5KPa1yHX2AbQhhbbHYr9-rVEVHnbEE81I3AXX2Af_lJCz9moQnqZJpIVR0BFvyLIT4vcoKyGMUQ712LvxKy29Fl4E9N9sAMxV6b8CzFiEfp_Mx5UM7PCdcVJfvbaY/w640-h442/gallo.jpg" width="640" /></a></i></div><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">F. J. Shore was the son of a governor-general of Bengal, John Shore, who took some interest in natural history, particularly botany. He supported the botanist William Roxburgh enough to earn himself a honorific genus <i>Shorea</i>. Frederick also joined the East India Company's Bengal civil service and began to work in India. He seems to have had very independent and outspoken opinions during his work. He was very critical of Company policies and of British attitudes towards Indians. He once adopted local dress while attending the court and received a government order against it. A later commentator, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Dewar" target="_blank">Douglas Dewar</a>, declared that Shore's comments needed to be taken with a pinch of salt.</div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d7/F_J_Shore.jpg/407px-F_J_Shore.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="407" height="480" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d7/F_J_Shore.jpg/407px-F_J_Shore.jpg" width="407" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An 1820 portrait of F.J. Shore<br /></td></tr></tbody></table> <p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Shore was involved in suppressing a revolt by gurjars in Saharanpur. According to the magistrate of Saharanpur, Rivers Grindall (who would later become the father in law of A.O. Hume!), the gurjars, nearly 800 of whom had assembled, had sworn by goddess Kali that they would get rid of the rule by foreigners. Grindall wrote urgently seeking military support. It would appear that every white man in the region with a pistol was invited to join - including the naturalist J. F. Royle and an army engineer named Henry De Bude. The main force however consisted of gurkhas under the command of Frederick Young. In the ensuing bloodbath, 200 people were killed, Shore received two deep cuts on his torso. Young's biography written from oral records by his daughter claims that there was an arrow in Shore's neck that had just missed his jugular. Shore apparently recovered from the wounds but his health remained bad and he died at the age of 37 in Calcutta. A British history has a sketch of Shore fighting with a gurjar and Young saving him by shooting the assailant.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/be/Hand_to_Hand_Combat_Between_Mr_Shore_and_the_Goojur.jpg/1280px-Hand_to_Hand_Combat_Between_Mr_Shore_and_the_Goojur.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="568" data-original-width="800" height="227" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/be/Hand_to_Hand_Combat_Between_Mr_Shore_and_the_Goojur.jpg/1280px-Hand_to_Hand_Combat_Between_Mr_Shore_and_the_Goojur.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now for what Gould wrote, about Shore's notes and illustrations. It appears that Casey Wood got hold of a bunch of the paintings and notes that Shore made in 1928. They are quite spectacular in that they capture the pose in nature very accurately in many cases. But evidently the set that has been so kindly shared by the McGill University library lacks the illustrations of the male and female painted spurfowl mentioned by Gould. In one plate Shore refers to "Volume 4", so clearly there are other books with illustrations that are unknown at least to online researchers. Shore clearly was a very careful observer, noting the colour of the mouth, anatomical features like the structure of the tongue and native names. He notes the calls of birds and in some cases documents them with musical notation - a first in India surely. He also tries to follow the color standards defined the watercolor company Ackermann that he presumably used. In transcribing native place and bird names he uses the scheme of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gilchrist_(linguist)" target="_blank">John Gilchrist</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio7DbKxHRsxvEd9KCBI5euicjzyZrR4Cn4QHjLLnXuhvHt2HDRS1l5FN8OmbjjL5WhwrYcMSBhgW8Y5RZD0UQodEU9k3pWMLjfR3DfP6vwxt57Gzh5f_kF1YUshMkSPXFlqQZMOcvMrSBv8oZnP2Y-v9PC3qp25-ilpFc9tiZRaj8SITgqo5glJRoKGgU/s5186/lbd.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2312" data-original-width="5186" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio7DbKxHRsxvEd9KCBI5euicjzyZrR4Cn4QHjLLnXuhvHt2HDRS1l5FN8OmbjjL5WhwrYcMSBhgW8Y5RZD0UQodEU9k3pWMLjfR3DfP6vwxt57Gzh5f_kF1YUshMkSPXFlqQZMOcvMrSBv8oZnP2Y-v9PC3qp25-ilpFc9tiZRaj8SITgqo5glJRoKGgU/w640-h286/lbd.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Notes on a little brown dove with call notation<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><p style="text-align: justify;">Casey Wood noted: <i>One of the most valuable manuscripts in the Blacker Library is an unpublished Appendix (in three volumes) to Latham’s Birds, 1821-8, with 195 original water-colors of Indian avifauna by F. J. Shore. Most of these are not to be found in the 1821-8 edition, or if they do appear, the coloring is probably incorrect. This fact is pointed out by the artist-editor who states that almost every picture in his collection is painted ad naturam so that unaltered plumage is depicted. Copious notes accompany each drawing. A more complete review of this historical series of drawings will be found in the appended Catalogue.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilEmwNxWdrIIIDTHRY4lm45LcgW56DA2FT-1vfKs-JrVgUbenHRy22MR0rUus4NS1A0TfXQFkxKBm3UsKfYLpBibPx-GzwAdRQ6HF3FVbejmrgYwwkt01Z_8F5hdpXpWf3g8DCZjTx9Jj_VKS5z2Xwk3d8AbqzqkdnH6fcQKrZj2Z22cWR8g5CJa_cbkg/s1410/shore.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1410" data-original-width="475" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilEmwNxWdrIIIDTHRY4lm45LcgW56DA2FT-1vfKs-JrVgUbenHRy22MR0rUus4NS1A0TfXQFkxKBm3UsKfYLpBibPx-GzwAdRQ6HF3FVbejmrgYwwkt01Z_8F5hdpXpWf3g8DCZjTx9Jj_VKS5z2Xwk3d8AbqzqkdnH6fcQKrZj2Z22cWR8g5CJa_cbkg/s16000/shore.jpg" /></a></i></div><i><br /></i>Here is a sampling of Shore's works (a few are added <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Frederick_John_Shore" target="_blank">here</a>).<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/84/Shore-birds-paintings_folioQL674S56_v1-2_0134.jpg/842px-Shore-birds-paintings_folioQL674S56_v1-2_0134.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="658" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/84/Shore-birds-paintings_folioQL674S56_v1-2_0134.jpg/842px-Shore-birds-paintings_folioQL674S56_v1-2_0134.jpg" width="263" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Refers to volume 4<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">
</p></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/70/Shore-birds-paintings_folioQL674S56_v3_0130.jpg/1280px-Shore-birds-paintings_folioQL674S56_v3_0130.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="592" data-original-width="800" height="237" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/70/Shore-birds-paintings_folioQL674S56_v3_0130.jpg/1280px-Shore-birds-paintings_folioQL674S56_v3_0130.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7c/Shore-birds-paintings_folioQL674S56_v3_0132.jpg/1280px-Shore-birds-paintings_folioQL674S56_v3_0132.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="611" data-original-width="800" height="244" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7c/Shore-birds-paintings_folioQL674S56_v3_0132.jpg/1280px-Shore-birds-paintings_folioQL674S56_v3_0132.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/Shore-birds-paintings_folioQL674S56_v3_0068.jpg/1280px-Shore-birds-paintings_folioQL674S56_v3_0068.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="592" data-original-width="800" height="237" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/Shore-birds-paintings_folioQL674S56_v3_0068.jpg/1280px-Shore-birds-paintings_folioQL674S56_v3_0068.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />So where is Volume 4 of his book which presumably contains the illustrations that Gould refers to? ZSL? NHM? (Have checked the online catalogues and found nothing)<br /></div>Shyamal L.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14523054793854154400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3126865061920461436.post-34785459710745365532023-08-02T11:13:00.006+05:302024-01-10T09:39:48.095+05:30Outdoor learning - forests as educational infrastructure<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="firstchar">I</span> recently wondered about the use of forests as educational spaces. When I was in school, the WWF with its attractive panda logo was quite popular. One of their innovations at that time had been a project called the Nature Clubs of India which used a federated model of clubs in schools and zonal centers branches. The branch in Bangalore was run by just a few persons. It included M. K. Srinath who made visits to schools with a few bags of snakes and gave talks on them to school-children. Another person was K. A. Bhojashetty, a remarkable gentleman who had recently retired after having served in the first batch of Indian Forest Service from Independent India. A friend and colleague of his, S. Subbarayalu, who also passed away recently mentioned how he was noted for his regal manners and nicknamed as "Bhojaraja". Bhojashetty passed away recently at the age of 99 (and S. Subbarayalu in June 2023). One of the WWF education officers was my friend <a href="https://www.wildwanderer.com" target="_blank">S. Karthikeyan</a> who continues to be a involved in outdoors education to this day. I was introduced as early teen into this very intense and lasting experience of what then appeared like "true wilderness" in the wilds of Bandipur. The Bandipur reserve had two dormitories set up for batches of students to stay and our four-day experience was guided by several volunteers. That model of education, with infrastructure support from the forest department, probably went extinct shortly after and it seems like a terrible pity that it did. The Nature Clubs of India experiment was perhaps, in hindsight, an exceptionally successful exercise which produced a number of outdoor educators who are still active. It probably deserves a detailed study if ever someone is interested in the history of outdoor education in India.<br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGSkg-5F-P4oNcCCdxNNASzw22vJJEFSCdBgQw-e4XmXLR6jbGHEmESjOhoorqNrjll5TtPykq0o3vmxJd1G-ImhOXqzPV66fS39ZJDQ-ac41Xv1i2y4zpIL11m1p5Kb7D5uMFzMiGCJPSeMEdbMHAdB-G3YWDBy1HXrqfVv2MY87iTLRSLQtQsiH4SYU/s1280/KABS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGSkg-5F-P4oNcCCdxNNASzw22vJJEFSCdBgQw-e4XmXLR6jbGHEmESjOhoorqNrjll5TtPykq0o3vmxJd1G-ImhOXqzPV66fS39ZJDQ-ac41Xv1i2y4zpIL11m1p5Kb7D5uMFzMiGCJPSeMEdbMHAdB-G3YWDBy1HXrqfVv2MY87iTLRSLQtQsiH4SYU/s320/KABS.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">K.A. Bhojashetty and others, 2014<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I was wondering about the thought process behind construction of the dormitories in Bandipur, clearly someone was more enlightened in the immediate-post-independence period and had decided that education was a key activity for the forest department. Surprisingly there seems to have been little written or known about the people behind this now dead philosophy. The accommodation in most forests in Karnataka today would appear to be today used primarily by party-goers producing noise and garbage and having political connections.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">As I looked at some other material, I was surprised by the how widely these concepts have been adopted - <span class="_2PHJq public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr"><span><span style="color: #2f2f30;"><i>Naturbørnehavens </i>in Denmark, </span></span></span>I was recently pointed to similar outdoors natural history education exercises in the former Soviet Union led by a remarkable man named <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyotr_Manteifel" target="_blank">P. A. Manteuffel</a> ("uncle petya" to the youth). And then I found that the Germans had ideas like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_kindergarten" target="_blank">Waldkindergarten</a>s. The US effort seems to have had people like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_C._Bryant" target="_blank">Harold C. Bryant</a> (check this <a href="https://archive.org/details/researcheducatio00nati" target="_blank">book</a>).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Today, forest departments in India are actively involved in keeping away most people out of their land holdings or provide stay options for an older and wealthier audience. In any case there is no official policy that declares forests as learning spaces or actively encourages its use. Perhaps only to be expected.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some of the most successful and influential zoology, botany, and ecology teachers in Indian universities have made use of outdoor excursions as part of their teaching method.<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">See also this article on <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220105-how-asia-fell-in-love-with-forest-schools">forest schools</a>. I recently wrote also on a related theme in a teaching magazine - <a href="https://www.teacherplus.org/provoking-thought-in-the-wild/" target="_blank">Teacher Plus</a>. <br /></div>Shyamal L.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14523054793854154400noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3126865061920461436.post-15426692968614453422023-08-01T13:43:00.003+05:302023-08-19T09:44:05.957+05:30"Big Bore"<p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="firstchar">A</span>mong the more elusive and little known correspondents of <a href="about:blank" target="_blank">Allan Octavian Hume's network</a> was "Big Bore" who served in the Madras and Mysore Forest Service. Albert George Raschke Theobald was his real name, born in Madras on 4 September 1845 to Charles George and Eliza. "Raschke" suggests German ancestry but he may also have had Indian ancestors considering that he married a Caroline Susan Rungan (daughter of a Manpally Rungan of Mysore or perhaps Kollegal) on 30 October 1886. Very little of him is known except through mentions of his records by Hume in his Game Birds. He seems to have spent at lot of time in the Tirunelveli (Palamcottah), Coimbatore, Kollegal and Mysore regions. He notes the tameness of teals in the Tirunelveli district, something that later observers were <a href="https://archive.org/details/journalofbombayn121900bomb/page/215/mode/1up" target="_blank">surprised </a>about. When <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Temple_Hornaday" target="_blank">William T. Hornaday</a> <a href="https://archive.org/details/twoyearsinjungle02horn/page/n165/mode/2up" target="_blank">visited India in 1877</a>, he went to the Anamalais where Theobald had a home. There is a sketch based on a photograph that Theobald seems to have provided Hornaday that may still exist in some US archive.<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGSbHLNX1rlKmhOG8koEU2P-NA0iYYoZuc5WdplHLufGAEJRNKc4lvp37Y6p6LDVLS7govAZsWJ3pm_6dr3mYXmBMDMUVqWNhP49mAAAPBFWdj5NlvNC3qgQUA0nx8G66Ljjt4Ak2JoxXSGmFnsNXJdrb8afUpE5xtwfdXmH9fmckL6zct1Ma-iGta6oQ/s2495/Theobald.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1722" data-original-width="2495" height="442" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGSbHLNX1rlKmhOG8koEU2P-NA0iYYoZuc5WdplHLufGAEJRNKc4lvp37Y6p6LDVLS7govAZsWJ3pm_6dr3mYXmBMDMUVqWNhP49mAAAPBFWdj5NlvNC3qgQUA0nx8G66Ljjt4Ak2JoxXSGmFnsNXJdrb8afUpE5xtwfdXmH9fmckL6zct1Ma-iGta6oQ/w640-h442/Theobald.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Hornaday write: "<i>From the first moment we became fast friends, which feeling only deepened with time and further acquaintance. I found in him one of nature's noblemen, as frank, free-hearted, and steadfast as ever breathed. In the course of time I discovered that he was a real genius, of the type so generously credited to the "Yankee." Besides possessing a very considerable fund of medical information and surgical skill, he was a good gunsmith and watchmaker, a first-rate photographer and taxidermist, and a very keen sportsman and naturalist.</i>"<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Theobald's sons Charles and William established themselves as Theobald Brothers, taxidermists in Mysore to compete with the Van Ingens. They seem to have provided services to the <a href="https://archive.org/details/hrhtheprinceofwa029890mbp/page/n264/mode/1up" target="_blank">Prince of Wales </a>on his hunting trip into India. "<i>Messrs. Theobald claim to have been the first firm to chrome-cure skins with the hair on, and to set up heads on hollow papier mache casts, a process for which they hold patent rights in India. They employ a very large staff, and receive work not only from all parts of India, Burma and Ceylon, but from Africa and other parts of the world as well.</i>"<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Theobald senior died on 28 May 1919 and is apparently buried in Kilpauk cemetery. According to Gouri Satya in<i> Colonial Landmarks in Mysuru, </i>Theobald road in Mysore is named after the family.<br /></p>Shyamal L.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14523054793854154400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3126865061920461436.post-87951929120709019772022-10-02T18:46:00.037+05:302023-08-28T08:12:18.656+05:30Natural history works by Indians<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb05sz0zWCM6VEmaGb3iJt_Yu7FNORAaC1q1Y5NSsH4sy-YhlOGs32-yk2lJjl0-aKrzwqOs-c8T_TmRhyF6XSMF4rknlToh_y3jZ4Ii4i9Wxnz4MgrsBmVk-t716DSfTLoDE41BFdL-cY_nvanVxyWapZc-zWhLpWaWbSN8j5jW0RlzcTKiOxrdAd/s5358/salim.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3496" data-original-width="5358" height="418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb05sz0zWCM6VEmaGb3iJt_Yu7FNORAaC1q1Y5NSsH4sy-YhlOGs32-yk2lJjl0-aKrzwqOs-c8T_TmRhyF6XSMF4rknlToh_y3jZ4Ii4i9Wxnz4MgrsBmVk-t716DSfTLoDE41BFdL-cY_nvanVxyWapZc-zWhLpWaWbSN8j5jW0RlzcTKiOxrdAd/w640-h418/salim.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"As a matter of fact ornithology was Englishman's pastime, the British army persons and wine merchants introduced it to India" (sic) - K. N. Narayana Murthy, 1996<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span class="firstchar"> </span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="firstchar">I</span> came across this rather curious work with ink-blot based art work that was gifted to Zafar Futehally. What struck me was on one of the first few pages, not the ink-blot, but the commentary, short, simplistic, a mixture of truths and inaccuracies (almost Twitter-esque) which cried for a careful examination. Parts of it are true, indeed ornithology as defined and practiced in its dominant form is indeed not something that Indians have been used to doing. Certainly not the collection and preservation of specimens from across the world, their placement in museums with careful labels, the publication of books and journals, the description of species, their naming or the formation of ornithological societies. So, in a sense those practices of ornithology, where they may exist in India in tenuous avatars, have indeed been imported. Wine merchants being the primary agents is a bit of a stretch (the reference is of course to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Musgrave_Phipson" target="_blank">H.M. Phipson</a> who was involved in establishing the BNHS and perhaps the author knew of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Samuel_Millard" target="_blank">W.S Millard </a>who also happened to work with Phipson's wine company. There was also an S.L. Whymper in Nainital who was involved in the brewing industry.). But it is true that early Indian participants in ornithology were those who were close to the English circles, local princes, or nobles who were often educated abroad. This did of course help make ornithology in India into a subject associated with elitism. There is a<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Japans-Empire-Birds-Anglo-Americans-Contemporary-ebook/dp/B09VB6XJ2Z" target="_blank"> recent book</a> dealing with ornithology in Japan which also seems to have had a similar history.<br /><br />The ornithological literature in English (like many other field-based sciences, but not as much as say geology) is littered with words imported from other languages. Surprisingly, two terms that are fairly well-known, and from the Indian region are in fact not introductions made by the ornithological elite. The <i>dho gaza</i> (दो गज़ = 2 square yards) and the <i>bal-chattri</i> (बाल छत्री, which was incorrectly translated as a child's umbrella, but now known to refer to the horsehair noose used in it) are traps used in bird study. Both of these come from indigenous naturalists (in the broad sense). The earliest use and origins of these terms is unknown but should say something about the native knowledge in bird trapping and bird behaviour that existed (much has been lost, with those professions are now sadly officially criminalized). </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY_Zj29onKxrNKmbRcBf4fMOHtmDQDl3BA4rttLtWHUk4w6lRTIBrlb_Stjgkz4J0GYuHRCn9Dj-hAR4_d-oGMcrOk8EFQ4BFt1f9MUq3cds74EEq2ehkixJDaOMmeFIbxhCjgTAmNg2XOhzbRB9IofxcKK8SpxogaHB-qpR6KFnkWYTfQ7A9r25TY/s1080/swedish.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="702" data-original-width="1080" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY_Zj29onKxrNKmbRcBf4fMOHtmDQDl3BA4rttLtWHUk4w6lRTIBrlb_Stjgkz4J0GYuHRCn9Dj-hAR4_d-oGMcrOk8EFQ4BFt1f9MUq3cds74EEq2ehkixJDaOMmeFIbxhCjgTAmNg2XOhzbRB9IofxcKK8SpxogaHB-qpR6KFnkWYTfQ7A9r25TY/w400-h260/swedish.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A comment and note by Lakshmishwar Sinha <br />in the <i>Modern Review<br /></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p></p><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Now many naturalists in pre-Independence India who sought to make the study of the natural world around them acceptable, and not be an imitation of the English sahibs around them, had a struggle. Surprisingly we (or at least I) know so little about these authors or their works. Some exceptions exist, for instance we know of M. Krishnan who wrote both in Tamil and English. There were others who wrote solely in the local language and nobody has really brought together a compilation of these works (since it needs information from far and wide). I recently heard about one Gujarati work and decided that I should try and compile over time a list of native natural history works (I am skipping works of poetry or prose that merely express beauty). I am most interested in hearing from any readers about books or authors in <b>any Indian language</b> (English included but I am skipping well-known field-guides - such as the works of Salim Ali) and extending up to the pre-internet era. The situation changed with the internet and the relative ease of producing content has led to many translated and derivative works which are best excluded for now. I will update the list below as and when I receive notes.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p style="text-align: justify;">Working list below (feel free to provide any corrections or additions, dates, publisher information) </p><span><!--more--></span><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Bengali</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajoy_Home" target="_blank">Ajoy Home</a> (more info needed)</li><ul><li><i>Chena Achena Pakhi </i></li><li><i>Banglar Pakhi</i></li></ul></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_Brahma_Sanyal" target="_blank">Ram Brahma Sanyal</a><i> </i></li><ul><li><i><a href="https://archive.org/details/hourswithnature00sanyrich" target="_blank">Hours with nature</a> </i>(1896) </li></ul></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satya_Churn_Law" target="_blank">Satya Churn Law </a></span></li><ul><li><span>ran a journal called Prakriti - about which almost nothing is known</span></li><li><span> </span></li><li><span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdwSY0_Kf1PTOHwQWQKESWazyho5Ky2-n_kPZbjWJz3VahDVfI3R-6hJJDUehSQlVxp44yjFgrlVoUWgxQGQ1wYk1R5ajgawbpFT1CrDV_QQ1d0mOBHCJ0Ec4JnNIQImBCK6eAevMUtedy3yi8jQ-BzXcZLEIb9lVJRNP8E08gyptjWWsBGTXC1Uwd/s829/prakriti.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="571" data-original-width="829" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdwSY0_Kf1PTOHwQWQKESWazyho5Ky2-n_kPZbjWJz3VahDVfI3R-6hJJDUehSQlVxp44yjFgrlVoUWgxQGQ1wYk1R5ajgawbpFT1CrDV_QQ1d0mOBHCJ0Ec4JnNIQImBCK6eAevMUtedy3yi8jQ-BzXcZLEIb9lVJRNP8E08gyptjWWsBGTXC1Uwd/s320/prakriti.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></span><br /><br /></li></ul></ul><p style="text-align: justify;"><br />Gujarati</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span class="f7rl1if4 adechonz f6oz4yja dahkl6ri axrg9lpx rufpak1n qtovjlwq qbmienfq rfyhaz4c rdmi1yqr ohrdq8us nswx41af fawcizw8 l1aqi3e3 sdu1flz4">Pradyuman Desai</span></li><ul><li><span class="f7rl1if4 adechonz f6oz4yja dahkl6ri axrg9lpx rufpak1n qtovjlwq qbmienfq rfyhaz4c rdmi1yqr ohrdq8us nswx41af fawcizw8 l1aqi3e3 sdu1flz4">/ <i>Kudarat nee kedi</i> / lit. On the Nature Trail - in two parts [source: Dr Ketan S. Tatu] - Date<br /></span></li></ul><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jayakrishna_Indraji" target="_blank">Jayakrishna Indraji </a></li><ul><li><a href="https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/10897" target="_blank"><i>Vanaspati Shastra</i></a> (1910) </li></ul></ul><p style="text-align: justify;">Kannada</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Poornachandra Tejaswi</li><ul><li> ಹಕ್ಕಿ ಪುಕ್ಕ / <i>Hakki Pukka </i>/ lit. bird feathers<br /></li></ul><li>B.G.L. Swamy <br /></li><ul><li><i>ನಮ್ಮ ಹೊಟ್ಟೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ದಕ್ಷಿಣ ಅಮೇರಿಕ / Namma hotteyalli dakshina America</i> /lit. South America in our stomach - <br /></li><li><i><span aria-level="4" itemprop="name" role="heading">ಹಸುರು ಹೊನ್ನು</span> / Hasiru honnu</i> / lit. Green Gold - 1977</li></ul><li> <span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs x1xmvt09 x1lliihq x1s928wv xhkezso x1gmr53x x1cpjm7i x1fgarty x1943h6x xudqn12 x3x7a5m x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u x1yc453h" dir="auto"><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs x1xmvt09 x1lliihq x1s928wv xhkezso x1gmr53x x1cpjm7i x1fgarty x1943h6x xudqn12 x3x7a5m x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u x1yc453h" dir="auto">Shivaram Karanth</span></span></li><ul><li><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs x1xmvt09 x1lliihq x1s928wv xhkezso x1gmr53x x1cpjm7i x1fgarty x1943h6x xudqn12 x3x7a5m x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u x1yc453h" dir="auto">ಪ್ರಾಣಿ ಪ್ರಪಂಚ / PraaNi Prapancha / lit. animal world - 1993 </span></li></ul><li>H. R. Krishnamurthy </li><ul><li><i>Hakkigallannu guritisu</i></li><li><i>Namma Hakkigalu</i></li></ul></ul><p>Kashmir <br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Samsar Chand Kaul</li><ul><li><a href="https://archive.org/details/birdsofkashmir" target="_blank">Birds of Kashmir</a></li></ul></ul><p>Tamil </p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhaviah_Krishnan" target="_blank">M. Krishnan</a></li><li>S. Theodore Baskaran </li><li>P. Jeganathan<br /> </li></ul><p>Malayalam<br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>K. K. Neelakantan (written under the pen-name Induchoodan)<br /></li><ul><li>കേരളത്തിലെ പക്ഷികള് / Keralithile Pakshigal / lit. Kerala's birds <br /> </li></ul><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.K_Krishnan" target="_blank">E.K. Krishnan</a> (father of the botanist Janaki Ammal)</li><ul><li>Supposed to have written (pamphlets?) on the birds of Malabar and of Telicherry in English<br /></li></ul></ul><p><span>Hindi</span></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span> <a href="https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.347456" target="_blank">भारत के पक्षी</a> / Bharat ke pakshi / India's birds / राजश्वरप्रसाद नारायसिंह / Rajeshwar Prasad Narayan Singh (1958)</span></li><li><a href="https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.263914" target="_blank"><span>बन-उपबन </span><span>के पक्षी</span></a><span> / Ban Upvan ke Pakshi / Birds of forests and gardens / जगपति चतुर्वेदी / Jagpathi Chaturvedi (1954)<br /></span></li></ul><p><span>Marathi</span></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span> Maruti Chitampalli (2014) <a href="https://www.amazon.in/Pakshikosh-Maruti-Chitampalli/dp/9382824154" target="_blank">Pakshikosh</a>. [source: Aniruddha Dhamorikar]<br /></span></li></ul><p><span><br /><span> </span><br /></span></p><p><span> </span> <br /></p>Shyamal L.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14523054793854154400noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3126865061920461436.post-42700419080886217642022-09-16T11:04:00.009+05:302022-09-17T12:01:48.531+05:30A forerunner to the Book of Indian Birds<p style="text-align: justify;"><span class=firstchar>B</span>efore the <i>Book of Indian Birds </i>(1941) was a series of bird charts published by the Bombay Natural History Society. More than a decade before the book, in 1928, a series of 5 wall charts were prepared to cover 200 species of birds for use in Indian schools. Salim Ali writes about them in the <a href="https://archive.org/details/BookOfIndianBirds/page/n7/mode/1up" target="_blank">preface </a>to the first edition of the <i>Book of Indian Birds</i>: </p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote><i>"It was part of their plan that the plates prepared for these charts should be subsequently used to illustrate a book on the common birds of India containing simple descriptions and short life-histories of every species depicted, together with a few general chapters on bird-life calculated to interest the beginner and the layman, and stimulate a desire for deeper study. Unfortunately, the publication of the book has been delayed beyond expectation. The unforeseen <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression" target="_blank">economic depression</a> that intervened obliged many institutions to cancel or greatly reduce their orders for the Bird Charts placed prior to publication. This retarded the liquidation of the very considerable expenditure the Society had incurred on the charts and held up the publication of the book, since it was beyond their means to undertake this additional liability simultaneously. The issue of this book with its large number of coloured plates at a price that should bring it within the means of the average purse, has now become possible entirely due to the recoupment by the Society of their initial outlay on the preparation of the colour-blocks for the charts, thus minimising the cost of the present illustrations."</i></blockquote></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Very few have seen these charts and the BNHS archives are largely opaque to researchers. Fortunately for us, there a review of these charts by David Seth-Smith was published in the <a href="https://archive.org/details/aviculturalmag4111933asco/page/52/mode/1up" target="_blank"><i>Avicultural Magazine</i></a> with black and white copy of one of the charts. And more importantly, copies of that magazine have been made available via the Biodiversity Heritage Library.<br /></div><div><p></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggWpU2vZOnmigd0jK9R2ywYw40NoJ_TOPCrsiFMy1HSteZbZ9ODgc0kIpEoM_LJ9_rEm88S7wpllIaEtsIa5X46HcAYbPRulLs70LWb6csQSyT--b9ablWaItz3yunE3QIIK4V8yMkjqeD-qypf2BQgS9KlYscdkH16Bge0L6avLQguPrLAMhR8n7v/s1303/BNHS%20chart.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1303" data-original-width="1173" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggWpU2vZOnmigd0jK9R2ywYw40NoJ_TOPCrsiFMy1HSteZbZ9ODgc0kIpEoM_LJ9_rEm88S7wpllIaEtsIa5X46HcAYbPRulLs70LWb6csQSyT--b9ablWaItz3yunE3QIIK4V8yMkjqeD-qypf2BQgS9KlYscdkH16Bge0L6avLQguPrLAMhR8n7v/s320/BNHS%20chart.jpg" width="288" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Perching Birds, Climbing Birds, Birds of Prey, Game Birds, Wading, and Swimming Birds. Each chart was 40 x 36 inches, printed in colour, mounted on canvas, and varnished. It was sold at 45 rupees for the whole set of 5 charts (being then 3 pounds 7 shillings and 6 dimes). A book version of the pictures measuring 12 x 9.5 inches was also sold at 5 pounds 7 shillings and 6 dimes. The distribution in the UK was by Vitty & Seaborne publishers.<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Note: This was posted following interest shown to a picture of this chart on Instagram. It would be amazing if the BNHS could locate a set of these five charts and reproduce them in colour for historic documentation.<br /></p></div>Shyamal L.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14523054793854154400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3126865061920461436.post-25434832247370564972022-08-23T12:45:00.003+05:302022-09-20T08:32:56.197+05:30IPS: The Indian Pigeon Service<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sZfjbfe5SXM" width="320" youtube-src-id="sZfjbfe5SXM"></iframe></div><p></p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="firstchar">A</span> dear friend shared this documentary "War of the Birds" which includes
some rather interesting stories on pigeons used in World War II. This
led me to revisit something that I had come across in the past rather
briefly. There was an Indian Pigeon Service which was part of the Signal
Corps which was active towards the 1940s. Rather little has been
written about them - although there was a manual that is unfortunately
not available in online archives "<i>Indian Pigeon Service. A manual of
instruction on the use of homing
pigeons in India and South East Asia. Booklet, Feb 1945 - published by
the Chief of the General Staff, Delhi, Feb 1945</i>"- and some letters have been reproduced <a href="http://worldwar2militaryintelligence.blogspot.com/2017/05/report-on-indian-pigeon-service-july.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="https://worldwar2militaryintelligence.blogspot.com/2017/04/indian-pigeon-service-conference-1944.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">But this makes another bit even more surprising - there were attempts much earlier on introducing homing pigeons in the army and those early experiments were done in Bangalore by the 19th Hussars who set up something called the Assaye Flying Club, a report on which was made in the <i>Lincolnshire Echo </i>of 13 December 1894! </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Perhaps someone with access to army archives can find more.</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>1945 notice on rescinding Defence of India Rule 19A which restricted homing and racing pigeons - <a href="https://www.abhilekh-patal.in/jspui/handle/123456789/2717279">https://www.abhilekh-patal.in/jspui/handle/123456789/2717279</a></li><li>PS: Varun Khanna sent me this very interesting <a href="https://www.indianairmails.com/pigeon-mail.html" target="_blank">link</a>.<br /></li></ul><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Shyamal L.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14523054793854154400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3126865061920461436.post-39776039514957727832022-07-10T11:20:00.000+05:302022-07-10T11:20:00.424+05:30The pseudonymous shikari<p style="text-align: justify;"> <span class="firstchar">E</span>arly colonial Indian shikar literature is filled with authors hiding behind pseudonyms like "Civilian", "Mountaineer", "Hawkeye", "Silver hackle", "Felix", or "Maori", and I have often wondered whether this was more than just fashion. Perhaps the authors truly wanted to keep their whereabouts private lest their employers or others find fault with them. At least in the case of "Mountaineer", there seems to have been a real need for staying low. I was surprised to find that there are at least two major biographies of "Mountaineer" which I think do not deal sufficiently with his life in the Indian wilderness and are easily missed if one does not make the connection between <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Wilson_(Raja)" target="_blank">Frederick "Pahari" Wilson</a> and Shikari Wilson alias <i>Mountaineer</i>. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/James_Hume.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="544" height="800" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/James_Hume.jpg" width="544" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hume_(magistrate)" target="_blank">James Hume</a>, A. O. Hume's cousin, sketched by the <br />Calcutta artist and animal rights pioneer<br /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colesworthey_Grant" target="_blank">Colesworthey Grant</a><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Frederick Wilson left life in the East India Company army and went AWOL, supposedly with just five rupees and his brown bess, to hide away in the Himalayas, well before the 1857 uprising. It would appear that he made himself useful during 1857 and received a pardon after which he moved back into the company of his own countrymen. Much of the romanticism associated with him is for his having gone native and styling himself the Raja of Harsil. Wilson made money by denuding the Himalayan forests, cutting down old growth forests and floating timber down the rivers, setting up sawmills in the lower valleys and selling them off to feed the voracious appetite of the early railways. He shot wildlife freely and wrote about his exploits under the pen-name "<i>Mountaineer</i>" - the largest output being to the <i>India Sporting Review</i> - now a very hard-to-find periodical. This magazine was edited by James Hume, a magistrate in Calcutta, with whom the young Allan O. Hume stayed when he first arrived in India in 1849. Now the historian <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._R._Mehrotra" target="_blank">S. R. Mehrotra</a> who passed away a few years ago <a href="https://archive.org/details/dli.bengal.10689.12892/page/n57/mode/1up" target="_blank">noted that</a> it was with his Calcutta cousin that he saw the first protest of the Europeans against changing laws. And his cousin James was among the few who did not support the Europeans. (I am unable to see the historical context of the so-called <i>white mutiny of 1849</i> that Mehrotra refers to) Shikari Wilson was clearly a close friend of James Hume and still later Allan as well. Wilson is said to have shot 1000 to 1500 male monals a year for the sale of their plumage during the height of the plume trade. Brooks travelled along the Bhagirathi river valley in 1875 and noted that monal populations could recover now that Wilson had left them alone! Brooks also recorded the price paid for a monal - Rupees 2 and 8 annas.<br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/India_Sporting_Review.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="520" height="800" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/India_Sporting_Review.jpg" width="520" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The India Sporting Review <br />A work that ought to be digitized for posterity<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Attempts to get the Biodiversity Heritage Library to locate a set of the India Sporting Review have all failed. It is however claimed by cricket historian Boria Majumdar that he has a complete set of the India Sporting Review as part of the Fannatic Sports Museum. It would be amazing indeed if this set could be digitized for wider research access. Then perhaps we will all be able to read more of <i>Mountaineer</i> Wilson.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Shikari_Wilson_Harsil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="594" data-original-width="800" height="297" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Shikari_Wilson_Harsil.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Frederick "Pahadi" Wilson's bungalow in Harsil <br />which burned down in 1997<br />The figures in the foreground are Wilson and his brother-in-law<br />Mungetu Chand.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Journalist Robert Hutchinson wrote book on Wilson after hearing about him from Sundarlal Bahuguna and D.C. Kala wrote another book on Hulson Sahib. Jack Gibson of Doon School found Wilson coinage being used for gambling when hiking in the region in 1938. Ruskin Bond knew the last descendant of Wilson. Few however seem to have actually looked at Wilson's environmental impact carefully enough.<br /></p>Shyamal L.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14523054793854154400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3126865061920461436.post-42948884273645528612022-02-10T16:43:00.007+05:302022-02-26T15:35:58.753+05:30The Damned<p style="text-align: center;"> <i>Never block the flow of water or words </i><br />- Untraceable proverb of Chinese origin</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="firstchar">I</span> have been looking at fish-related literature from India and it has been both instructive and shocking. I came across the <a href="https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/54717900" target="_blank">brilliant draftmanship</a> of an unknown artist in the employment of Patrick Russell at Vizag. Indian artists drew fish also for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christoph_Samuel_John" target="_blank">Christoph Samuel John</a>, T.C. Jerdon, Walter Elliott, W.H. Sykes, Thomas Hardwicke, and perhaps many others. Some of these were examined by Francis Hamilton and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Day" target="_blank">Francis Day</a>. Day had begun as a typical physician naturalist, and in 1855 he had exhibited some of the bird skins that he had collected. From a position as an army physician, he wrote on the state of Cochin, describing also the fishes of the region, and his expertise led to him being moved into the position of inspector general of fisheries. <br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEggGakSQzRKVPB2VHcnhCxWWz5IrWU3tgfzeTskRmClL1zmjmQOTVjYhjkElm7VZ6bfkrkbNokBE1CEDJgppUjvoSrFb1a_i8oRagQmn532UrUGhvmw1UZHUdN9qkJWhUa5NKbHagbG2LgrlggNVWSpy_CF2EyEqkb0Fasl9vxPGXi1MraPYuZnUTM_=s4807" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2310" data-original-width="4807" height="309" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEggGakSQzRKVPB2VHcnhCxWWz5IrWU3tgfzeTskRmClL1zmjmQOTVjYhjkElm7VZ6bfkrkbNokBE1CEDJgppUjvoSrFb1a_i8oRagQmn532UrUGhvmw1UZHUdN9qkJWhUa5NKbHagbG2LgrlggNVWSpy_CF2EyEqkb0Fasl9vxPGXi1MraPYuZnUTM_=w640-h309" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The genus <i>Wallago</i> after a Telugu name recorded at Vizag by Patrick Russell<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1749" data-original-width="4763" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgfkIimRwhs8u4xxhaksP1HLBtO69UYDeXin72_tZJJkUfNq-VfzeFf5Nrfh6HYOxLV2MneFYkCSbw6c1M8yPxwV7ykn8Htx-EIvVRvM7TwmGINCzeJa3TyCpGU5tS8vQ9wWQEG9THERdFJNm9p5AdRb5RZgW41WlvuZaevE3gHzctuVTSSKPguy30n=w640-h237" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgfkIimRwhs8u4xxhaksP1HLBtO69UYDeXin72_tZJJkUfNq-VfzeFf5Nrfh6HYOxLV2MneFYkCSbw6c1M8yPxwV7ykn8Htx-EIvVRvM7TwmGINCzeJa3TyCpGU5tS8vQ9wWQEG9THERdFJNm9p5AdRb5RZgW41WlvuZaevE3gHzctuVTSSKPguy30n=s4763" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>Sphyraena jello</i> - from Telugu jellow recorded by Russell <br /></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">Patrick Russell in his 1803 publication noted the local names of fishes. In his earlier work on snakes he was able to provide coloured plates (and even an MS plate with an actual snake skin stuck on) and it was after his work that the snake genus <i>Bungarus </i>was established, derived from Telugu Bangarum for gold, referring to the colour of the banded krait. It was a revelation that the fish genus <i>Wallago</i> and the barracuda species <i>Sphyraena jello</i> were also derived from local names. His drawings were made for him by an unnamed Indian artist. The drawings were copied and engraved into plates in England and printed.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Reading through Francis Day's work is particularly interesting, and he notes the role of Sir Arthur Cotton, these days only remembered for his "pioneering" work in damming the rivers of Andhra and Telangana. Surprisingly, and unlike our supposedly more enlightened modern engineers who are now all set on causing further mindless ecological carnage through river-linking projects, Arthur Cotton surmised that his dam projects were damaging fisheries and he had Day sent to examine the issue.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">In 1867 Her Majesty's Secretary of State for India, in a despatch to the Madras Government, directed their attention to a letter from Sir Arthur Cotton, in which he said he "should suppose that the injury to the coast fisheries must be very great, now that seven of the principal rivers on the East coast" are barred by irrigation works that had been constructed. In consequence of this I was directed by the Government to visit the "anicuts" or weirs in the Madras Presidency, in order that the Heads of Departments might have fuller information on the subject than had been offered them up to that date. This order was carried out as follows : — first the districts to the south of Madras were inspected, and then those to the north. I was afterwards instructed to continue these inquiries, and went to Orissa and Lower Bengal, afterwards to British Burma, and at the end of 1869 to the Andaman Islands. An accident which occurred during these investigations compelled me to proceed to Europe in March, 1870, but this enabled me to visit many of the fish-ladders in use in England, and I returned at the end of the year to India.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">My visits to the irrigation works on the rivers of Southern India in 1867, had, however, completely established the fact that the fish which, prior to the erection of the weirs, had ascended the rivers during the season of the rains for the purpose of spawning, were not only prevented from proceeding up stream to spots suitable for the deposition of their ova, but were collected in such vast numbers immediately below these weirs, which they vainly attempted to pass, that the wholesale manner in which they were caught by the native fishermen almost amounted to extermination of the spawning fish of each season.<br /></div><div style="text-align: right;">Day, <a href="https://archive.org/details/fishesofindiabei01dayf/page/n8/mode/1up" target="_blank">Preface</a>. Fishes of India. Volume 1.<br /></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />In his work on <i>The Fish and Fisheries of Bengal</i>, Day <a href="https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.469828/page/n9/mode/1up" target="_blank">further adds</a> that "<i>it might be erroneously concluded that no such destructive causes can affect the non-migratory fish</i>" and goes on to explain how much fish biology is affected by dams and weirs. Day talks about fish that went up from the sea up the Cauvery until Trichy in large numbers in the past. It seems needless to point out that the <i>constructions rather than the fishermen</i> were the real problem. It is likely that some fish species went extinct before they were even described.</div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Day worked under the department of agriculture Department of Revenue, Agriculture, and Commerce and in his Fishes of India, thanks his superiors Richard Strachey and A.O. Hume. Hume was doubtless a great supporter of Day's work and Day had himself been a bird collector, exhibiting skins at the Madras Exhibition of 1855 for which he received an honorable mention (the judges included Hugh Cleghorn and Hume's cousin E.G. Balfour). Day supported Hume's bird collecting expedition in the Sindh through the fisheries department and personally took part in collecting as well.<br /><br />Day also thanks Sir Walter Elliott: "<i>formerly of the Madras Civil Service, who most liberally placed at my disposal the whole of his beautiful and accurate coloured illustrations of the Fishes of Madras and Waltair which he had had executed by native artists from the fresh specimen.</i>" Some of these plates are in the Zoological Society of London, with Telugu names written on the margins. A careful study of these plates by a fish specialist will surely yield interesting information. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile with typical nationalist pride and careless idiocy the Indian government is all set to go forth with its river linking plans. Who cares about a few thousand fisherfolk, leave alone a few species of fish?!</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiSSDpZAIKv9VyDqjLeKSxdMsN_rSRUf4Ha9dpFE4Rj691b3otrGbxiWN6inr_22rJFP_Bh4bSwgzI74pAPB7DHh-alBOKRrXWnEUnLWZOi8k3mvYUpbNlxCzR5QT7uZ1D0Mvy6mD-wnSHF0iQRp_aEnk71F6LG7Qx04THU7CAiGSE9lG1_apcqKkpS=s967" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="337" data-original-width="967" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiSSDpZAIKv9VyDqjLeKSxdMsN_rSRUf4Ha9dpFE4Rj691b3otrGbxiWN6inr_22rJFP_Bh4bSwgzI74pAPB7DHh-alBOKRrXWnEUnLWZOi8k3mvYUpbNlxCzR5QT7uZ1D0Mvy6mD-wnSHF0iQRp_aEnk71F6LG7Qx04THU7CAiGSE9lG1_apcqKkpS=w640-h224" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An unidentified fish included by Francis Day in the <a href="https://archive.org/details/fishesofindiabei01dayf/page/8/mode/1up" target="_blank"><i>Fishes of India<br /></i></a></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>A note on the decline in fishes in the Ganges from <i>The Modern Review</i>, September 1937 (The Tragedy of Bengal's Fisheries by Dines Chandra Majumdar pp. 280-285. ). Another case of the shifting baseline in species declines:<br /></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>Just thirty years ago the late Sir K. G. Gupta under orders of the Government submitted a report on. Bengal's fisheries. The report, as well as his enquiry, was necessitated by the growing scarcity of fish in those days even.</blockquote></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Further reading</b></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Whitehead, P.J.P. & P.K. Talwar, 1976. <a class="external text" href="https://archive.org/stream/bulletinofbritis05brit#page/4/mode/2up" rel="nofollow">Francis Day (1829–1889) and his collections of Indian Fishes</a>. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Historical Series 5(1): 1–189<b>.</b></li><li>Day, Francis (1873).<b> </b><a href="https://archive.org/details/reportonfreshwat00dayfrich" target="_blank">Report on the fresh water fish and fisheries of India and Burma.</a><b> </b>Calcutta: Govt. of India.<br /><b></b></li></ul><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Shyamal L.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14523054793854154400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3126865061920461436.post-58434751899220466462021-09-09T17:00:00.006+05:302022-01-19T10:04:21.563+05:30Wringing hands over lost opportunities (since 1966)<p style="text-align: justify;"> <span class="firstchar">A</span> 1966 letter from Salim Ali to Erwin Stresemann reminded me of a question posed to me on the development of ringing in India. India is famed for its <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Licence_Raj" target="_blank">License Raj</a> or governmental control over any activity that offers opportunities to display power.<sup>*</sup> One of the things about power, is that those who overcome it or get empowered display a form of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome" target="_blank">Stockholm Syndrome</a> in which they not only praise the system but choose to inflict the same kinds of indignities down the power hierarchy. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In the UK, there is a Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 which grants power to the BTO to permit and <a href="https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/ringing/about-ringing/permit-allow" target="_blank">designate qualified ringers</a> who then can capture, handle, and ring birds. This devolution of power from the government to a volunteer organization allows for scaling up study across geography. The US has a <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/labs/birdb-lab/science/banding-permit-general-information?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects" target="_blank">refined bureacracy</a> that deals with ringing permits - from what I have been given to understand, that refinement was largely led by researchers pushing the government to make appropriate amendments so as to expand the base of volunteers. The documentation itself demonstrates clarity on the implementation of the regulations. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Now for a fun assignment on the Internet - try finding the appropriate documentation for India to become a bird-ringer. A few Indian scientists manage, through personal influence, to obtain the necessary permits to carry out ringing but it is merely for their own specific short-term research - leading to personal degrees or publications to advance their own careers. That is not to say that science as a career is a problem but that certain forms of research need to be done without an immediate aim - something like the work done (formerly, as much is now automated) by meteorological station recorders on a daily basis. Now compare this with how large numbers of people elsewhere are introduced to the bird in the hand, to learn morphometrics, record andunderstand moult, develop their own field-guides with details on age-determination, while also discovering new information first hand. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Scientists in India can claim to have little time in fixing systemic issues but that is exactly how they positively contribute to backwardness in Indian ornithology (or indeed to a number of other societal issues). True "citizen science" can begin only when we can talk about the devolution of power. Occupying the higher echelons of Indian society, professional (ie salaried, not referring to the quality of their science) scientists cannot therefore afford to continue to look down upon the ordinary citizens. Indeed their choice to remain aloof and "apolitical" (especially to avoid jeopardising their funds) is not particularly useful.<br /></p>
*: I imagine that Monty Python with their <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCLp7zodUiI" target="_blank">Ministry of Silly Walks</a> contributed to fixing the problem in the UK.
<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuJPSGoez3AEQNjo8b91MH7eOVibFPi-NxQdopU8ZZA8u_0opIT0RoFbV6UCe1MeLuiVIIlzuqWAoFUCGb7nNBeKUXgCikyRdSzHzMy-YlHXsU-8-g3t0MPXk-SL0hFcly_WLD0LOlRmo/s2048/Ali.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1602" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuJPSGoez3AEQNjo8b91MH7eOVibFPi-NxQdopU8ZZA8u_0opIT0RoFbV6UCe1MeLuiVIIlzuqWAoFUCGb7nNBeKUXgCikyRdSzHzMy-YlHXsU-8-g3t0MPXk-SL0hFcly_WLD0LOlRmo/w500-h640/Ali.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An aerogramme from Ali to Stresemann.<br />Permission to reproduce kindly provided by the <span><i>Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin.</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Shyamal L.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14523054793854154400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3126865061920461436.post-4971711588972136742021-08-11T14:46:00.015+05:302022-07-27T15:09:11.475+05:30Annandale's Zoology<p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="firstchar">M</span>any of India's leading zoologists died well before they reached the age of fifty. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Annandale" target="_blank">Nelson Annandale</a> was one of them. Annandale trained in anthropology, and in a way was responsible for getting <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prasanta_Chandra_Mahalanobis" target="_blank">Mahalanobis</a> to develop multivariate statistical approaches by providing him a real-world problem involving the classification of skulls based on measurements. Annandale gave a rather interesting talk on the <i>Ethics of Zoology</i>. It is so hard to come by that I suspect few Indian zoologists have ever read it. As the founder of the Zoological Survey of India, Annandale's note is definitely an important one for anyone interested in the history of Indian zoology. Given the difficulty in locating it, I have decided to post it here verbatim (it can also be found <a href="https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.48192/page/n485/mode/1up" target="_blank">here</a>).</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/T_N_Annandale.jpg/353px-T_N_Annandale.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="353" height="480" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/T_N_Annandale.jpg/353px-T_N_Annandale.jpg" width="353" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">T. N. Annandale, c. 1907<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Citation: Annandale, N. 1922. Ethics of Zoology. <i>Calcutta Review</i> (March):423-438. <br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Ethics of Zoology.</b><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;">by Nelson Annandale<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Address delivered to the Zoological Section of the Ninth Annual Meeting of the Indian Science Congress at Madras: February 1922. </b><br /><br />In his introduction to the eighty-third section of the <i>Ain-i-Akbari </i>Shaik Abulfazal wrote of Akbar:<br /><br />"<i>His Majesty has taught men something new and practical and has made an excellent rule, which protects the animal, guards the stores, teaches equity, reveals the excellent, and stimulates the lazy man</i>" (Blochmann's Ain-i-Akbari, Vol. I. <a href="https://archive.org/details/ainiakbari00jarrgoog/page/n276/mode/1up" target="_blank">p. 217</a>)<br /><br />Let us constitute ourselves humble followers of Akbar and strive to find a rule that will at once protect this animal, guard the stores of zoological learning, maintain equity between zoologists and stimulate the excellent, if not the lazy, man to sound zoological research. <br /><br />Sir William Jones in his inaugural discourse to the <i>Asiatick Society</i>, delivered in Calcutta in 1781, omitted zoology from the proposed agenda of the Society. Nine years later, in his tenth address, he explained the reason. “Could the figure, instincts, and qualities of birds, beasts, insects, reptiles, and fishes,” he said, “ be ascertained, either on the plan of Buffon, or on that of Linnaeus, without giving pain to the objects of our examination, few studies would afford us more solid instruction or more exquisite delight.”<br /><br />He went on to state that he could not conceive of the feelings of a naturalist who could occasion the misery of an innocent bird, “or, deprive even a butterfly of its natural enjoyment, because it has the misfortune to be rare or beautiful.” He then gave the following translation of a couplet of Firdausi :—<br /><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;">"Ah I spare yon emmet, rich in hoarded grain;<br /> He lives with pleasure, and he dies with pain."<br /> [Ed. emmet is a Germanic origin word for ant]<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Elementary as was Sir William Jones’s concept of zoology, his opinion as a scholar and a poet cannot be dismissed lightly. There is. as the French say. nothing that kills like ridicule, but ridicule kills only when its object is really ridiculous. To laugh at what is true and solid is to exhibit lack of sympathy and sense. <br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">There seems to me, however, to be some confusion of thought in Sir William Jones's statement, which I have not quoted in full, and, moreover, he has ignored the fundamental difference in the point of view of a man whose attitude towards animals is entirely religious as a believer in the transmigration of souls and the accumulation of merit, and that of one whose dislike of cruelty is ethical and aesthetic. Firdausi’s couplet expresses the views of the latter, the edicts of Asoka those of the former, for the edicts are directed not against cruelty to animals but against the destruction of life.<br /> <br /> No decent zoologist is cruel to animals. Indeed among civilized men there is something antagonistic to human sanity in deliberate cruelty; it is essentially morbid and unnatural. But there is another kind of cruelty, due mainly to lack of imagination and carelessness. It is difficult in watching a carter twisting the tail of his ox to believe that his motive is entirely free from vicious pleasure, but that it is mainly due to a lack of the intellectual ability to picture to himself the feelings of the ox we may concede. Curiously enough this minor type of cruelty is often prevalent among those to whom the religious motive is all-important.<br /> <br /> It is a custom in Japan to throw the laboratories of the Imperial Universities open to the public once a year, and to provide a popular exhibition of scientific apparatus and preparations. In 1915 I happened to be in a Japanese university town in which an exhibition of the kind was in progress. The main exhibit in the physiological laboratory was a living rabbit firmly tied down and out open in such a way as to illustrate the beating of the heart. Even supposing that the rabbit was completely anesthetized, the exhibit was a disgusting one from a Western point of view, and would probably have caused a riot in London, even before the police intervened; but in Japan, women and children examined it with perfect equanimity, and my friends of the University staff could not see anything wrong. And yet these very professors and lecturers were in the habit every year of holding a solemn service of expiation in one of the great Buddhist monasteries of the city for the souls of the animals which had been dissected in their laboratories.<br /> <br />It is an interesting speculation whether the Japanese crowd would hare viewed the vivisected rabbit with the same equanimity if it had chanced to be one of the animals of which the representation in painting is permitted by the narrow canons of Japanese art. I must confess that my own objections to the exhibition were just as much aesthetic as moral. <br /> <br />The study of zoology in India has not, as a matter of practice, been much affected by the edicts of Asoka, and the remarks of Sir William Jones on the supposed; cruelty involved in zoology had no more than a temporary effect on the history of the Asiatic Society. Indeed, it seemed at times as if the stone the builder had rejected had become the headstone of the corner, for in the days of Blyth and again in those of Alcock, zoological papers were amongst the most important published in the Society’s Journal. Nevertheless, it is as well that in our zoological work we should keep in mind both Firdausi and Piyadasi.<br /> <br />I need not waste your time on the crank who loves her dog and hates mankind.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Scientific work is plain-sailing as long as a man can do it alone. It is when he has to consider others that the strain and difficulty begin. There is one point, small in itself but still important, in which I notice that my younger colleagues experience peculiar difficulty, namely, in acknowledging the help they have received from their seniors. The matter is not so simple as it seems. Two pitfalls must be avoided, that of flattery on the one hand and that of plagiarism on the other. For Indians there is the added difficulty of a foreign language. There is nothing more difficult than to pay a graceful compliment in a language not one's own. Delicacy of feeling, moreover, is often necessary to distinguish between a common courtesy and subtle flattery. The best way out of the difficulty is to say frankly what help has been received and to express gratitude in as few words as possible.<br /><br />The question of plagiarism is even more difficult in scientific research than in literature. If Shakespeare, as some of my younger colleagues would argue, was justified in appropriating a commonplace plot and transmuting it into a work of genius, we also are justified in using the ideas of others as our own. Unfortunately few of us are Shakespeares, or Darwins. Darwin was one of the must modest of men, and always scrupulous in acknowledging assistance of any kind, even, or perhaps especially, from those whose lights were much less than his own. In acknowledging help, whether from the written or the spoken word, we cannot do better than accept the introductory part of the Origin of Species as our guide.<br /><br />But this does not dispose of the more general question of plagiarism. How much may be legitimately appropriated, or may anything be appropriated at all ? In the Roman Church St. Alphonso of Liguori, the one modern Doctor of the Church, is accepted as the final referee on ethical questions. He was bold enough to draw up a tariff of mortal sin in theft. He ruled that in certain circumstances a respectable man who stole a shilling from a working man, or fourteen shillings from a crowned bead, did not commit a mortal sin ; but that to steal even a few far things from a beggar was always a mortal sin. In scientific ethics we have no such authority as St. Alphonso; but the rule that nothing whatever should be taken from any living person without due acknowledgment is a good one. We must steal not at all, either from king or beggar. There are, however, in science as in literature many ideas and phrases so universally understood and accepted that to trace them to a personal origin is not only unnecessary but also a little ridiculous. Even such ideas and phrases, if attributed to an author, should be attributed correctly. For example, the saying that the practical man practises the follies of his ancestors is often attributed to Huxley, but really came in the first instance from Disraeli, in whose Coningsby it is placed, with many other self-evident sentiments, in the mouth of the wise Jew Sidonia.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br />The mention of Huxley leads me to a point almost universally ignored at the present day in the ethics of zoology— the importance of literary style in the presentation of scientific facts and ideas. If anything is worth saying it is worth saying well. You have all heard of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges-Louis_Leclerc,_Comte_de_Buffon" target="_blank">Buffon</a>, who used to put on his court dress and his sword whenever he sat down to write. Such external ceremony is perhaps contrary to the spirit of this age and, therefore, may appear to some of us to have been mere affection on Buffon's part; which it certainly was not. Scientific facts, however, are worthy of respect, and should be treated with due decorum. Style has been defined as saying things in an appropriate manner. It is not appropriate to couch a plain statement of facts in highly figurative or elaborate language. Plain facts must be stated plainly. Our aim in zoological literature must be chaste simplicity, but journalese is not simple, nor is it chaste. Superfluous words, words used to startle or confound without thought of their precise meaning, in short all idle words, merely recall the saying that language was given to man to conceal his thought. If, however, you adopt the telegraphic style in description—and nowadays economy in print is always desirable for financial reasons—do so only in mere diagnosis, and in diagnosis be adequate, and be consistent. It is neither economical nor grammatical to write in describing an insect :<br />"body black ; the legs are brown"</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I would advise every zoologist to study Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch’s lectures on <a href="https://archive.org/details/onartofwriting00quiluoft" target="_blank"><i>The Art of Writing English</i></a>. He will find some hard sayings. With many others, I have found the statement that a case can only mean a box not a little disconcerting, but the fact that such statements make us feel uncomfortable proves that they contain an element of truth.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br />Apart from literary style in the writing of zoological papers, the question of the mechanical preparation of the manuscript for the press is one of ethical significance. As editor of the <i>Records and Memoirs of the Indian Museum</i> I often receive manuscripts that need many hours' careful and troublesome work before they can be sent to the printer. But for the fact that Dr. Kemp is kind enough to relieve me of much of this drudgery, I would scarcely hesitate to refuse even to consider a great part of the matter submitted for publication. Carelessness or ignorance as to punctuation and the use of capitals is rife, and few authors take any trouble in indicating the use of italics or other special type. It is surprising how few zoologists know even such elementary rules as that of the proper use of brackets with the name of the authors of species. These names should never be enclosed in brackets, unless the name of the genus of the species has been changed since the latter was first described. These may seem trivial points, but their neglect indicates not only carelessness, but selfishness and lack of understanding.<br /><br />Zoology has become so complicated that few of us nowadays are more than “<a href="https://archive.org/details/poetatbreakfastt00holmiala/page/49/mode/1up" target="_blank">Scarabees</a>.” This is an immoral state, not only because no man in these strenuous times has the right to narrow his interests to a single family of beetles, but also because the whole of biology is at present encumbered with uncoordinated details that clog the machinery of progress instead of acting as motive power.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In zoology, however, as in all branches of knowledge, it is worse than being narrow-minded to assume an interest if we have it not. One of the, most unpleasant persons I ever met was a young student who emerged from a very dirty house in Iceland and remarked : "Good-morning! Do you think Lord Verulam wrote the plays of Shakespeare?" He took no more interest in the Shakespeare-Bacon controversy than I did in Icelandic politics, but wished to. impress the foreigner. You may apply this parable to zoology as you like.<br /><br />In recent years zoological controversy, like most other branches of criticism, has grown more refined, but we are still far from that urbane irony which an American critic' regards as one of the highest manifestations of the literary spirit in modern England, Courtesy is apt to degenerate into irresponsible and often irrelevant insinuations, such as, in Europe, slackness in war, or, in this country, ।an anti-Indian-spirit. In some branches of zoology, notably in pure taxonomy, opinions are so varied that no general Consensus seems possible. I have observed a tendency,among young zoologists in India to treat conclusions, based presumably on ascertained facts, somewhat lightly, in order to avoid controversy—as in the case of a young man who brought to a friend of mine a paper in which far-reaching conclusions were derived from somewhat meagre research. My friend pointed out that the evidence hardly justified the conclusions.<br />“Oh,” said the author, but I can change the conclusions ! ”<br />On the other hand, it is quite unnecessary to call a man a liar because you disagree with him on some controversial point, or even on some matter of observation. All men cannot think, or even see, alike, and because a man is senior, or belongs to a different race, he is not necessarily wrong.<br /><br />If the majority of zoologists were endowed, with a sense of humour (which, after all, as Thackeray has pointed out, is essentially the same thing as a sense of proportion) much controversy would be avoided altogether, the real point at issue not being any point of fact or even of interpretation but merely so me personal fad, jealousy or spite. I was once buying some sleeping-mats in the Malay State of Kelantan. The man who had brought them for sale stated that it had taken him two months to make them. I turned to another Malay who was standing by -an uneducated man, but endowed with the ready wit and delicacy of feeling so characteristic of the Malay race—and enquired if this could be true. "Doubtless, <i>Tuan</i>," was the reply, "but perhaps he only worked one day in each month." The retort was a retort courteous ; no offence was caused and the bargain was concluded in a manner satisfactory to all concerned.<br /><br />The true test in all controversy is the inner feelings of the disputants. So long as a man respects his opponent, and feels no bitterness towards him, controversy is a good thing; but in scientific controversy there must be no reservations, no quibbling. We must play with all our cards on the table. A plan I have adopted in the <i>Records of The Indian Museum</i> seems to me a good one. Some years ago I published a paper in the <i>Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal </i>in which I pointed out that there was considerable diversity in the frogs usually grouped under the name <i>Rana tigrina</i>. I, therefore, suggested that several distinct species should be recognised. Dr. G. A. Boulenger , then in charge of the Reptiles and Batrachia in the British Museum and still recognised as the leading herpetologist in Europe, did not agree with me. He paid me the great compliment of sending me a paper for publication in the Records of the Indian Museum, refuting my claim for the specific recognition of the different forms of <i>Rana tigrina</i>, which he regarded as merely races or varieties. <br /><br />In certain points Dr. Boulenger was evidently right and I wrong. So I wrote a second note expressing my views as modified by Dr. Boulenger's argument. Of this I sent the manuscript to him; and he replied in a third note. The three notes were then published together as a kind of dialogue, so that all the facts and arguments of the case were submitted to the zoological world together, without the slightest bitterness, loss of mutual respect, or ill-feeling on the part of either the senior or the junior author. Far otherwise was it with the famous controversy on the proper generic name of the bed-bug that raged round the world some years ago, from Hawaii to Belgium and from England to Canada.<br /><br />In setting forth this ideal of urbane controversy I do not mean to say that there are not oases in which the experienced zoologist does well to be angry. Dishonest or grossly careless work, work done merely for the sake of effect or to satisfy the investigator’s personal ambition or further his official promotion, must always meet with unqualified condemnation, in which there is no room for mutual respect.<br /><br />In the official document whereby the Zoological Survey of India was constituted in 1916 our relations with the technical departments are laid down as being those of ”cooperation without subordination.” The thanks of all Indian zoologists are due to the man who discovered this formula. I do not know his name. The formula implies not only the recognition of pure zoology on the part of the Government of India, but also its independence of direct economic aims. I have nothing to say against applied science, provided that it be science at all, but the term is often “applied” to something akin to the Holy Roman Empire, which has been described as neither holy, Roman, nor an empire.<br /><br />Even in the purely physical branches, in which the mathematical demonstration of facts is possible, "practical results ” often rest on a very small basis of research. The whole affair is in fact an inverted pyramid, liable to topple over at any moment and overwhelm its supporters. As soon as the question of life enters into applied science the matter becomes vastly more complex, and just as the life of the animal is more complex than that of the plant, so is applied zoology more difficult than applied botany. Some day we may know something about life, and understand how a plant or an animal lives, how and why it reacts to its environment. At present we know practically nothing. The great triumphs of applied biology are empirical, such as the discovery of the value of Cinchona bark ages before the malaria parasite was known. And yet they are triumphs of pure research, for research is only experiment and its interpretation. The practical knowledge of the primitive fisherman or agriculturist is based unconsciously on the experience of a thousand years. At present all we can do in a laboratory or a museum is to speed up experience, to attempt to learn in a few months or years what the peasant has taken centuries to learn, and has sometimes learned wrong in the end.<br /><br />Applied zoology should be, and perhaps some day may become, the great philanthropic agent of the world. At present, it is often a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a devil masquerading as an angel of light. No government or commercial body can resist the temptation of demanding results, and in India we hear of even professors expecting from their students a research a month. Such demands often meet with a ready response, especially from the young and ignorant. This can only result in a furtive and subtle dishonesty fatal to all true progress. I am firmly convinced that applied zoology is at present, with our inadequate apparatus of research, largely a chimera, indiscriminate faith in which is akin to that in the stories told in the <i>Physiologus </i>and its successors, the medieval bestiaries of Western Europe, about such animals as the elephant and the leopard. These stories were not written in the interests of material truth, but with a strictly moral or religious aim. They completely ignored facts, but yet were based on existing things. It was not until considerable numbers of Europeans went into the countries in which the libelled animals led their own unmoral lives that the true facts became apparent, and I do not think that either the morals of Europe or the interests of zoology suffered in the revelation.<br /><br />In his <i>History of English Literature from the Beginning to the Norman Conquest</i> Stopford Brooke translates an account of the leopard from an early poem on the <i>Panther, the Whale and the Partidge</i>. The panther lives, we learn, “ In the far lands in deep hollows......... , glittering in a many coloured coat like Joseph’s, a friend to all, save to that envenomed scat her, the Dragon.” After feeding (on what we are not told), he sleeps for three nights. When he awakes, “a lofty, sweet, ringing sound comes from his mouth, and with the song a most delightful steam of sweet-smelling breath, more grateful than all the blooms of herbs and blossoms of the trees.” This mystic aroma is compared by the early English poet to the hope of divine salvation. <br /><br />However fair the flowers of applied zoology may ‘seem, the ripened fruits are often Dead Sea apples, disappointing as the breath of the leopard, not to mention his unfriendly disposition, must have been to the first lettered Englishman who stumbled upon him in the jungle and awoke him from his slumbers.<br />Virgil in his <i>Georgics </i>wrote what was accepted for centuries by the learned as a manual of practical agriculture poetically expressed. Among other processes he described the manufacture of a swarm of bees from the carcase of a heifer. Imagine the poet reclining in his cool verandah with a manuscript of Hesiod half-unrolled on his lap, and pausing in his dictation to gaze over the countryside and muse for a moment on his own love for the simple farmer’s life. Fortunately for his reputation as a practical agriculturist his (or rather Hesiod’s) process for the abiogenetic production of honey-bees, which involved the slaughter of a prime heifer, was as unsound economically as it was biologically impossible. No one tried the experiment, and so the process was accepted from generation to generation as practical. In fact, the lighthearted, and doubtless illiterate, Samson, who slew a lion on his way to visit his lady-love and afterwards found a comb of wild honey in the skeleton, and made a riddle of it to puzzle the Philistines, was much the more practical man of the two. In modern times the man who introduced mongooses into the West Indies, rabbits into Australia or sparrows into North America, doubtless thought that he had accomplished a great work of applied biology—at first.<br /><br />In discussions on the value of zoological work there is nothing that makes me more indignant than the saying that this or that piece of Indian research is good work—for India. This usually means that it is of inferior quality, but must not be judged too hardly because it has been done either by an Indian or by an Englishman working amidst Indian difficulties. We Indian zoologists, to judge by the work of our predecessors—Hodgson, Blyth, Stoliczka, Blanford, Alcock and many others—have no reason to claim indulgence. There can be nothing more fatal to Indian science than to aim at a low ideal, and no greater insult can be paid to any branch of scientific effort than to judge it from a racial or a geographical standpoint. Zoology is often regarded in India as the Cinderella of the sciences, and it is, therefore, necessary on occasion for zoologists to mingle the meekness of the dove with the subtlety of the serpent. Some years ago, in my zeal to bring about a certain unity of purpose in the administration of the Indian Museum, I incurred the accusation of latent kaiserism from one of my colleagues. I replied that it seemed to me improbable that the youngest and poorest of the scientific departments under the Government of India would arise from the mud like Pharaoh’s lean kine and swallow its more prosperous brethren. However effective such replies may be for the moment, the necessity for them does not tend to edification. One branch of science may be poorer in loaves and fishes than another, but all are equal.<br /><br />Zoology is so closely connected with other branches of biology, and so dependent- in the last resort on geology, chemistry, physics and mathematics, that in my own work I find it frequently necessary to apply to members of other departments for special information. My experience has been that such information is always given in a most ungrudging and generous spirit when applied for personally, but that any official move towards closer co-operation is met with suspicion. I am heterodox enough to believe that the first duty of every scientific department, whether official or otherwise, should be to assist all scientific men in their work, and especially in their research ; but to the gods, alas, it has seemed otherwise. The gods of Olympus led a free and joyous life, feasting on nectar and ambrosia : in files and official etiquette the gods of the Himalaya have found more congenial fare. A witty Chairman of the Trustees of the Indian Museum, in which four Imperial survey departments are concerned, once remarked that the chief difficulty in its administration was that the parts were so much greater than the whole. Hypertrophy of the departmental consciousness is a disease to which we heads of scientific departments are by no means immune; a disease, moreover, which the Board of Scientific Advice, despite its zeal in preventing “the overlapping of functions” has failed to cure. In placing zoology on a sound basis in India, individual effort alone is of any avail, but the effort though individual must be unselfish, it must not be inspired by any kind of bitterness or self-seeking. We must realize with a sigh that the intelligence of a committee is often much lower than that of its least intelligent member.<br /><br />Even a committee, however, is preferable to individual patronage. I am of the opinion that private donations to science often do more harm than good, not only because of the conditions that usually hedge them round but also because they weaken individual effort in research. Unlike Art, Science abhors patronage and flourishes in hardship and opposition. We are told that in ancient Greece Alexander the Great was the patron of Aristotle, and yet that scientific thought was absolutely free. By the time of Alexander, however, the intellectual light of Greece was fading out, and democracy, the most official form of Government known to mankind, had already found, its supreme victim in Socrates, the philosopher whose test for all things was truth.<br /><br />At all periods and in all countries of the modern world— whether it be in the dealings of Pope Urban with Galileo or in those of the British Government with scientific men in the early part of the War—ignorant members of the official hierarchy—and even a high official of the most excellent administration may be very ignorant of science—have attempted to treat science much as St. Columba treated the practical experience of St. Oran. The story is told in full in a comparatively late Irish life of Columba and is barely hinted at in more authentic documents. It seems to me, however, to bear in its primitive simplicity the impress of truth. No mere hagiologist would ever have invented such a story. Here is the story. An important religious work was to be under taken on the island of Iona and it had been decided that one man must die for the community and become its guardian spirit. St. Columba called for volunteers and St. Oran, who is said to have been his brother, offered himself. St. Oran was accordingly buried alive. After three days St. Columba caused the grave to be opened. St. Oran, was not dead, but thought he was. He opened his eyes and said, “ There is no mystery in death and Hell is not like what it was said to be." St. Columba, doubtless thinking that his brother was possessed of a devil, cried out in alarm, “ Earth, earth on the eyes of Oran, lest he blab more ! ” And so it was done. “ Earth on the eyes of Oran ” has become a proverb in Gaelic.<br /><br />I had recently in London an opportunity of discussing the position of zoology in this country with one of the greatest of living zoologists. He maintained that zoology should not be encouraged in India until India was in a position to do independent work. By independent work he meant research independent of official control. Apart from all personal considerations, I was unable to agree with him, for I see no way of fostering zoological research at present in India hut through the agency of Government. It is quite true that no branch of science can be said to be on a sound basis unless it is independent, and that the flame of research must burn feebly so long as it is not fed by the spirit of individuality. Moreover, the age has not yet come in which the true value of the independence of science will be appreciated by the powers that be. Science and officialdom are as antagonistic as the mongoose and the snake, but officialdom in its dangerous form is a matter of the spirit rather than of material conditions. To confound government with officialdom is a mistake. No government that consisted merely of officialdom could exist for a month, I prefer to regard red-tape as the excreta of government. It is unfair to judge any organism by its excreta, nor is it fair to confound the Imperial policy with the tactics of some harassed secretary afflicted with a dysentery of notes and minutes and trembling at the name of the Finance Department. Zoology throughout the world owes a great debt to the Government of India as the only government that has founded a zoological survey on a basis of pure research. At the present time zoological posts sanctioned in previous years are kept vacant in Great Britain in the interests of so-called economy, while in India the Government is at any rate attempting to place zoological research on a sound financial basis. The constitution of the Indian Museum is now, especially in the matter of zoology, much more liberal than that of the British Museum from which it was originally copied. We have, therefore, in India justification for the hope of a brighter age; With faith in our calling and hope in its future we zoologists are in a very strong position.<br /><br />In the whole course of human history there is nothing that has caused more waste of genius, the rarest and most precious of human possessions, than the opposition of officialdom to the progress of knowledge; but even in our struggle with the spirit of officialdom we must preserve two essential qualities, reason and good humour—which does not exclude a sympathetic understanding of shortcomings, both our own and those of others. The lack of reason in scientific men has done almost as much harm as the ignorance and stupidity of officials. Charity is not only a virtue but also a very powerful weapon in the cause of science, which is the cause of truth. The Scot’s half-reverential pity for the Devil (the great Adversary, but for all that the "puir De'il"), has done good work for morality and efficiency. The fever of fanaticism is all-powerful in initiative, hot in the end produces without-fail an antitoxin of officialdom. Science can afford to be magnanimous, and the petty politics of the passing hour need not concern us. Truth is great and will prevail. Whatever may he our political views, whatever our race, or creed, or caste, Pope’s words stand true in science:—<br /></p><p style="text-align: center;">“ For Forms of Government, let fools contest;<br />What’er is best administered is best ;<br />For Modes of Faith let graceless zealots fight.;<br />His can’t be wrong whose life is in the right ;<br />In Faith and Hope the World will disagree, <br />But all Mankind's concern is Charity.”<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: right;">N. Annandale<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Postscript</b>: As someone who thinks organizations like the ZSI have long outlived its usefulness to Indian citizens (at least in the form in which it exists), it is also worth reading some of the people who fought for its retention after Independence. Among them was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Munro_Fox" target="_blank">H. Munro Fox</a> - who makes the following claims (all arguably not true now) "In Indian universities zoology has not been so much developed as some of the other sciences. ... In addition there are in India very few field naturalists. ..." [in Fox, H. M. (1947). The Zoological Survey of India. Nature, 159(4052):865–866. <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/159865a0" target="_blank">http://dx.doi.org/</a><a href="http://10.1038/159865a0">10.1038/159865a0</a>] </p><p style="text-align: justify;">If we look upon collections like the ZSI as a form of librarianship in maintaining a library of life - then we see that it is wrongly staffed. It needs people with the right skills to maintain artefacts (do they really only have to be dead specimens?), index them, and help provide access to the people who need it - on demand. As a slightly different form of librarianship, that of life, perhaps needs effort into keeping living copies - and so needs to be associated with stewardship of the land. As long as the ZSI keeps recruiting just zoologists (isolated from students and university environments), it will continue to rot from colonial thinking processes. <br /></p>Shyamal L.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14523054793854154400noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3126865061920461436.post-4494167442101209592021-07-15T12:02:00.014+05:302021-07-17T10:17:16.373+05:30Long before Salim Ali - an Indian bird collector 1906-9<p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="firstchar">H</span>idden away in the annals of systematic ornithology is the name of <b>P. N. Krishnasamy Naidoo</b>, Merchant on Victoria Street, Mahe, Seychelles around 1907 and living on Rue La Fague, St. Andre, Reunion in 1908. From the Indian diaspora, literate in French, Naidoo probably moved from Mauritius but little is known about his life. It appears that he began to collect bird specimens on the Indian Ocean islands for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Rothschild,_2nd_Baron_Rothschild" target="_blank">Lord Walter Rothschild </a>and his assistant <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Hartert" target="_blank">Ernst Hartert</a>. Almost nothing is known about him beyond the few letters he wrote that are preserved in the Natural History Museum at London and the bird specimens he collected which are now in the American Museum of Natural History.<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Naidoo collected nearly 450 skins of birds all of which are now at the American Museum of Natural History, part of their acquisition from Lord Rothschild, who was forced to make a distress sale of his collections to silence an unknown woman blackmailer. Suprisingly all the Naidoo birds landed in the American part while the letters of Naidoo are at the Natural History Museum in London. Some of the beautifully handwritten letters in French sent by Naidoo to Rothschild and Hartert tell of large payments being made for the bird specimens that he collected. For some of the island parakeets, Rothschild offered 30 pounds per specimen. [Kemp (2017) on Rothschild in the <i>New Scientist</i> calls him a useless banker who spent a mountain of cash to <i>buy </i>nature]<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">As always, every finding raises more questions, how did Naidoo get to be trained in skinning birds and preparing specimens? What was his own knowledge of the birds of the Indian Ocean Islands? </p><p style="text-align: justify;">A collection of the specimens that Naidoo collected along with the species, dates and locations can be found from the American Museum of Natural History <a href="https://emu-prod.amnh.org/db/emuwebamnh/Query.php" target="_blank">website</a>. Examination of some of his letters at the <a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Persons&id=PX8585" target="_blank">NHM London archives</a> has not revealed much on his life. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">A chapter remains to be written on this interesting marginal character in ornithological history.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Notes:</b> <br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Kemp, Christopher (2017). <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0262-4079(17)32169-3" target="_blank">The financier who bought all of nature</a>. New Scientist 3150:40-41. <br /></li></ul><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Thanks</b> are due to a number of people for helping unearth the precious little that we know about Naidoo - Robert Prys-Jones, Alison Harding, Kathryn Rooke, (NHM-London); Pat Matyot (who suggested that Naidoo may have come <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/govindasamy-krishnasamy-thambi-naidoo" target="_blank">from a family</a> of indentured labourers that left Mattur in Tamil Nadu to settle in Mauritius with some becoming successful entrepreneurs - like Govindasamy Krishnasamy Thambi Naidoo who financially supported Mahatma Gandhi); and Malavika Vyawahare (via Abhay Thakur, IFS).</span><br /></p>Shyamal L.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14523054793854154400noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3126865061920461436.post-55629516150951643322021-03-10T11:31:00.008+05:302023-04-16T08:49:27.324+05:30An inedible tale<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhY5Dxl_jT9WSPWAW7v_Kt0PGa-cokmWor_66V7yvfYog-SW2DByoX2e6kCIBCbDoaku1dfG0yuxzZVHQjMji0WoRFrIuY7aWFiYGGe9BBFcuAL2khxhgVPL30x8ncuGsPfutTUw2-Ay8/s1171/edible.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="901" data-original-width="1171" height="492" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhY5Dxl_jT9WSPWAW7v_Kt0PGa-cokmWor_66V7yvfYog-SW2DByoX2e6kCIBCbDoaku1dfG0yuxzZVHQjMji0WoRFrIuY7aWFiYGGe9BBFcuAL2khxhgVPL30x8ncuGsPfutTUw2-Ay8/w640-h492/edible.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="firstchar">M</span>any years ago, I had access to a copy of this peculiarly titled book on the birds of India. It had some beautiful lithographs, possibly hand coloured, and evidently faded into strange and muddy shades of brown. Fortunately, today, there is a nice scan of the book available online via the Biodiversity Heritage Library and safely deposited on the <a href="https://archive.org/details/ediblegamebirdso00murr" target="_blank">Internet Archive</a>. Some of us had created an entry at Wikipedia for its author <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._Murray_(zoologist)" target="_blank">J.A. Murray</a> - and around 2006 it had been expanded as James Augustus Murray and at that time the library of the Natural History Museum in London had conflated the two in their catalogue index too. Fortunately it was easy to see that there was no connection to the lexicographer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Murray_(lexicographer)" target="_blank">Sir James Augustus Murray</a> and the errors have since been fixed but painfully little was known about James Alexander Murray!</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Asiatic Society of Mumbai has done an excellent job of digitizing its collections and making them available at a very reasonable subscription price. The search engine and the OCR also work rather well and after running some searches on <a href="http://granthsanjeevani.com" target="_blank">GranthSanjeevani</a> I stumbled on the rather sordid tale of our Murray. It turns out that he founded a Victoria Natural History Institute which aimed to make natural history specimens available for sale and he was rapidly trying to expand this organization across India. Rather too rapidly and ambitiously it would appear. He had people across the country paying him to become heads of branches and then went into severe debt. This finally led to his being charged with cheating and some of the court hearings appear in the newspaper reports of the time. They reveal that Murray was once a librarian at the Kurrachee Municipal Library from where he was discharged dishonourably after it was discovered that he was trying to sell off duplicates of old books. Moving back to Mumbai where he was born, possibly of mixed British Indian parentage (described as "Eurasian"), he tried to set up an organization to make use of his taxidermic skills and knowledge of natural history. A report from the Bangalore Museum notes with hope that they might obtain new exhibits through the newly opened branches of the Victoria Natural History Institute in Mysore and Bangalore. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Musgrave_Phipson" target="_blank">Phipson </a>of the BNHS, it would appear, had been kind enough to lend money to Murray and perhaps even provided housing to him until he failed to pay his rents. Phipson was called to court as a witness. The court with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyttleton_Bayley" target="_blank">L.H. Bayley</a> presiding finally sentenced Murray to five years of rigorous imprisonment whereupon he appears to have been broken and the man was lost forever to history.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"> </p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaqDzQepp1DLBaeUJD3HOG2WWLhTbj3XUz7v0XHWItoRxrNHebIvKyA273RrzV__CyfbS_pY_Njkzb4QB_WqH74gvXo3gRUwjLGMl7WMFh8CtSEZ5gJ0tRro8PcpteFA4jG8fFClwDjy4/s930/MurrayAdvert.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="530" data-original-width="930" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaqDzQepp1DLBaeUJD3HOG2WWLhTbj3XUz7v0XHWItoRxrNHebIvKyA273RrzV__CyfbS_pY_Njkzb4QB_WqH74gvXo3gRUwjLGMl7WMFh8CtSEZ5gJ0tRro8PcpteFA4jG8fFClwDjy4/w640-h364/MurrayAdvert.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Uqk2YT_BA2RtKzgAWLDpQ5x44huObou_So9ssBRH-lspvLL_RinxG_nmHzO_gmKwAQx6RyVOZPBP0yOD5PW0Fce8jnn1xUPM5AVNTuI_T9Z70pSnKvFhHThre3TjXsuXuBQs6Iby8lM/s600/Vnhi2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Uqk2YT_BA2RtKzgAWLDpQ5x44huObou_So9ssBRH-lspvLL_RinxG_nmHzO_gmKwAQx6RyVOZPBP0yOD5PW0Fce8jnn1xUPM5AVNTuI_T9Z70pSnKvFhHThre3TjXsuXuBQs6Iby8lM/w572-h640/Vnhi2.jpg" width="572" /></a></div><br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7iwiMMsrXUcS4m_aeNOR7ftPwm3iHfWb-o0MeqKAriU7eBZge3J-v_K4v9gIUlwVleM8uGwvXqSW-Vfh6wSphMgQhkFbyjVlE12CpCqRiNdEdT8EKa6x79ZttcXk2x6NSXCc_JbGjjTo/s1167/JA+Murray.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1167" data-original-width="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7iwiMMsrXUcS4m_aeNOR7ftPwm3iHfWb-o0MeqKAriU7eBZge3J-v_K4v9gIUlwVleM8uGwvXqSW-Vfh6wSphMgQhkFbyjVlE12CpCqRiNdEdT8EKa6x79ZttcXk2x6NSXCc_JbGjjTo/s16000/JA+Murray.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Bombay Gazette, 17 April 1893 p. 4</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Shyamal L.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14523054793854154400noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3126865061920461436.post-57487071321620876822021-01-27T14:41:00.005+05:302023-04-10T08:03:07.180+05:30Birds and Indian agriculture - turf wars<p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="firstchar">A</span>longside the activism against the plume trade in Victorian England, there was a widespread interest in understanding the "value" of birds to Indian agriculture possibly since many birds were <a href="http://muscicapa.blogspot.com/2014/11/bird-protection-in-india-some.html" target="_blank">trapped for the trade</a> coinciding with famines in India. It was also a period when the British Empire intensified agricultural research efforts. Recall that <a href="http://muscicapa.blogspot.com/2019/03/a-buggy-history.html" target="_blank">professional agricultural entomology in India was influenced</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_Anne_Ormerod" target="_blank">Eleanor Ormerod</a> who suggested that if she could do as much as she did voluntarily for English agriculture, a lot could be done with a paid position in India! Ormerod, oddly enough, was engaged in a campaign to eradicate the sparrow in England when other upper class ladies were clamouring for the protection of birds. While Reverend <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Orpen_Morris" target="_blank">F.O. Morris</a> and some other male conservationists wrote letters noting her deviation from expected feminine conduct and requested her to show "<i>compassion ... and fulfil her duty as a woman</i>", there were farmers who agreed with her and argued on Christian foundations that although sparrows "... <i>were created for some wise purpose. Such was undoubtedly the case in the original order. But the Great Creator made man to rule over the fowls of the air and the beasts of the field, leaving it to his judgment to destroy such that were found more destructive than beneficial.</i>" [Bradshaw, 2014; Holmes, 2016] As early as 1892, the idea that some careful examination was needed was mooted and the phrase "economic ornithology" was introduced by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Cathcart,_3rd_Earl_Cathcart" target="_blank">Earl Cathcart</a>. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5f/J_D_N_H_S.jpg/295px-J_D_N_H_S.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="295" height="363" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5f/J_D_N_H_S.jpg/295px-J_D_N_H_S.jpg" width="223" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is unclear how the bird-agriculture question spilled over into India but an early attempt to look at Indian birds from an agricultural
perspective was by Charles William Mason, an entomologist. In 1907, Mason offered tubes and instructions for collectors of birds to provide him with the contents of the gut and gizzards of birds that had been shot. The idea at the time was that based on the diet, birds could be
classified into three neat classes as being beneficial, injurious, or
neutral to agriculture. Very <a href="https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/7613725" target="_blank">little is known</a> of the life of Mason, he joined the research institute at Pusa as a supernumerary entomologist working under Harold Maxwell Lefroy and left India in 1910 to study at Wye, and the US before moving to work in Nyasaland where he died of black-water fever (malaria) on 28 November 1917 at
Namiwawa. Mason's intensive work on the examination of the contents of the guts of 1325 birds shot mainly around Pusa in Bihar may perhaps be among the few of its kind. Mason did not publish much before leaving India. Lefroy himself left India in 1911 but the interest in birds continued with his successor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bainbrigge_Fletcher" target="_blank">T.B. Fletcher</a> who encouraged the a planter and naturalist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_M._Inglis" target="_blank">Charles Inglis</a> to conduct studies in relation to agriculture. The two wrote a series of illustrated articles on birds in the <i>Agricultural Journal of India</i> but it appears that the professional entomologists (note that Fletcher himself would easily qualify as an amateur by modern standards) were unimpressed. A reprint of the series was made as <i><a href="https://archive.org/details/BirdsOfAnIndianGarden" target="_blank">Birds of an Indian Garden</a> </i>(1924). </div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHD2POgIEo8ZR6_G236v5UDN9TqvITJifdveJzJ2dn0SX2HtA3sTO0MBnAkoGPLtLwXsPCKNu3etWPt84DxlCiI5GLwNWwcdLi-Fqww42MQc2C666DGxlYUNiIYMKjGUhDPRcIwjpNR0U/s2048/Susai.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1612" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHD2POgIEo8ZR6_G236v5UDN9TqvITJifdveJzJ2dn0SX2HtA3sTO0MBnAkoGPLtLwXsPCKNu3etWPt84DxlCiI5GLwNWwcdLi-Fqww42MQc2C666DGxlYUNiIYMKjGUhDPRcIwjpNR0U/s320/Susai.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Inglis later spent his energies editing the <i>Journal of the Darjeeling Natural History Society</i> and managing the society's museum in Darjeeling. His journal includes interesting discussions between Inglis and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satya_Churn_Law" target="_blank">S C Law</a>. Law was an avid aviculturist who obtained birds from the wild. Inglis met Law and his trappers in Darjeeling with a number of sunbirds and in a subsequent note Law documented their sad fate resulting from their aggressive behaviour. At the 1923 meeting organized by Fletcher he notes "the amateur entomologists, whom we are always glad to see and to help as far as possible, are also represented by Major Kingston and Mr. Inglis." </div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Present at the same meeting was a professionally employed south Indian entomologist from Coimbatore, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P.S._Nathan" target="_blank">P. Susainathan</a>. Susainathan had written an interesting note on the birds of the Coimbatore region from a standpoint of economic ornithology called "<i>Bird Friends and Foes</i>" (1921). Susainathan later worked in Iraq and at some point decided he was better off catching insects for taxonomic specialists and began perhaps a career unique in India, at least for an Indian (there were professional collectors like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Doherty" target="_blank">William Doherty</a> who made much larger collections, pers. comm. Michael Geiser, NHM London). He advertised in various entomological magazines and offered to send specimens from India within the group that they were interested in. The Wikipedia biography covers the key bits on him and his family members who continued in the collection enterprise. There are nearly forty insect species with names like <i>nathani</i> or <i>susainathani</i>, <i>nathanae</i>, and <i>nathanorum </i>(of Mr Nathan, of Mrs Nathan, of the Nathans). Susainathan's book has a description of the sparrow which includes the term "aerial rat" which recalls Ormerod's usage of "avian rat". <br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVkci9vkfacDv2m1oyHMfbhyphenhyphenNvaN1zgr7aCvcvhNRaPE8HLkkT7qryi8CptIf3k8vi8JFZp_JkTlgGLYwx_4gf4R3bwtwl61Jq81Me9f-z2myJ9CIYK1qaUtmkBeIi_yuuKH8H0YhKx58/s2010/Nathan.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1422" data-original-width="2010" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVkci9vkfacDv2m1oyHMfbhyphenhyphenNvaN1zgr7aCvcvhNRaPE8HLkkT7qryi8CptIf3k8vi8JFZp_JkTlgGLYwx_4gf4R3bwtwl61Jq81Me9f-z2myJ9CIYK1qaUtmkBeIi_yuuKH8H0YhKx58/w424-h299/Nathan.jpeg" width="424" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Nathan family in the 1970s - photo from Karl Werner (1956-2007)<br />P. Susainathan is second from right in the back row.<br />Scan courtesy of Juergen Wiesner<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">It is worth recording that professional entomologists appear to have guarded the field of economic entomology as far as its applications to agriculture went. When <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salim_Ali" target="_blank">Salim Ali</a> made an application to the <a href="https://www.abhilekh-patal.in/jspui/handle/123456789/2692743" target="_blank">ICAR to study birds</a> (see linked document in the National Archives of India), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baini_Prashad" target="_blank">Baini Prashad</a> of the ZSI was largely supportive, but the proposal was essentially nixed by the Imperial Entomologist at that point of time (viz. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hem_Singh_Pruthi" target="_blank">Hem Singh Pruthi</a>, although the letter seems to have been forwarded to the government by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_John_Freshwater_Shaw" target="_blank">F.J.F. Shaw</a>). Pruthi's comments are worth noting for the tone of protection of the professional turf (apart from some casual sexism):</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>The most suitable <b>man </b>for undertaking the study of Insectivorous birds is one who is primarily a good entomologist and possesses some knowledge of birds in addition. <b>He</b> should be familiar with the habits of the Insect fauna of the area and be able to identify himself the stomach contents of the birds immediately after their death. The chief <b>man</b> should hare a taxidermist to assist <b>him </b>in the preservation of the birds, which can be got named by specialists afterwards.</blockquote></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There has been a great deal of writing on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professionalization" target="_blank">professionalization </a>of science and most of what is written in traditional (or should it be professional?) history of science departments would appear to show professionalization as a positive and progressive step and few studies if ever look at the negatives such as how profession-defenders define the boundaries of subjects, block so-called <a href="http://muscicapa.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-value-of-outsiders-bit-of-big-data.html" target="_blank">outsiders</a>, and thereby prevent possible enrichment and growth.</div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Further reading</b><br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Bradshaw, D. (2014). "<a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/24907004" target="_blank">Wretched Sparrows</a>": Protectionists, Suffragettes and the Irish. <i>Woolf Studies Annual,</i> <i>20</i>, 41-52. </li><li>Holmes, Matthew (2016). <a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10739-016-9455-6.pdf" target="_blank">The Sparrow Question: Social and Scientific Accord in Britain,1850–1900</a>. Journal of the History of Biology 50(3):645-671.</li><li>Mason, C.W. (1907). The Food of the Mynah. The Agricultural Journal of India 2(3):280-282.</li><li>Mason, C.W. and Maxwell-Lefroy, H. (1911). <a href="https://archive.org/details/foodofbirdsinind00masorich" target="_blank">Memoirs of the Department of Agriculture in India. The Food of Birds in India.</a> Calcutta: The Imperial Department of Agriculture in India. <br /></li><li>Susainathan, P. (1921). <a href="https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.219743" target="_blank">Bird <br />Friends And Foes Of The Farmer.</a> Department of Agriculture, Madras. Bulletin no. 81. <br /></li></ul><div style="text-align: justify;">Postscript April 2023: Mr S. R. Nayak who worked in the BNHS showed me a very interesting collection of visiting cards that Salim Ali owned and in it was a rather interesting card. One can almost imagine Ali commenting on the title used here. Yash Pal Beri was trained as an agricultural entomologist and appears to have been the founding member of the IARI agricultural ornithology group which was later joined by R. K. Bhatnagar and others. Bhatnagar retired around 1997 and he gave me his collection of issues of the <i>Newsletter of Birdwatchers</i> which are now digitized on the Internet Archive.<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRioOd3B1MxHp9EF3MDljDO50z8p4RoKiZxo7tWIHIVCduBkojNWa3IPu6MeeGEfhzleR0rv33svoT6uPTVNbASWIoQDdXlfUl54JAgeI-eR80hz7sIfLwoMGRtH9bhiuo8OMoi3x9R3lD_NjUnzqrSt4drgrRPmDQLZR8vz3gpEexejTIAs51Po26/s1280/Y%20P%20Beri.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="853" data-original-width="1280" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRioOd3B1MxHp9EF3MDljDO50z8p4RoKiZxo7tWIHIVCduBkojNWa3IPu6MeeGEfhzleR0rv33svoT6uPTVNbASWIoQDdXlfUl54JAgeI-eR80hz7sIfLwoMGRtH9bhiuo8OMoi3x9R3lD_NjUnzqrSt4drgrRPmDQLZR8vz3gpEexejTIAs51Po26/s320/Y%20P%20Beri.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Beri's card from Salim Ali's card collection<br />(now in the NCBS archives)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Shyamal L.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14523054793854154400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3126865061920461436.post-26207812133455078052020-10-23T18:09:00.010+05:302020-10-25T11:26:38.563+05:30Some little-known bird books from India - Torfrida<p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="firstchar">A</span>mong the little-known bird books of India, and of a rather unique genre, are <i>Nurseries of Heaven - More birds of India </i>(1944) and <i>Nurseries of Heaven - Birds </i>(before 1944) written by someone with the pen-name "<i>Torfrida</i>" and illustrated by a Mrs May Dart who evidently lived in Wellington in the Nilgiris. This is not the only book written by this writer-illustrator pair, they also wrote <i>Nurseries of Heaven - <a href="https://archive.org/details/NurseriesOfHeaven-WildFlowersOfIndia-Torfrida" target="_blank">Wild Flowers of India</a>. </i>The flower and bird books deal principally with the Nilgiris. In 1944 the pair also wrote <i><a href="https://archive.org/details/NuseriesOfHeaven" target="_blank">Flowering Trees of India</a> </i>(the geographic scope of that book seems wider). All the books appear to be a mixture of poetry, etymology, literary references, illustrations, fables, and a wee bit of original observation thrown in. These are all small pamphlets, presumably printed for children, possibly made for distribution in the local church.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The book is perhaps among the few Anglo Indian works with an aesthetic appreciation of birds [and not centered around humour like the writings of Phil Robinson, Eha or Dewar]. It also provides insights into Colonial life in the Nilgiris. I was fortunate to examine the contents of <i>More Birds of India</i> in a rather rare copy held by the Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of Ornithology at Cape Town in 2018. More information on May Dart and the mysterious Torfrida would be nice to have!<br /></p><h1 class="item-title"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcu30QkfBZ-UGjORRjrtdvBQ0A6gHiDa7uFOD81iRn44R_rxyngqjlvw2Rg_GpwgILWJMX2fR3nx-wuB6yCNTKmTQZdUtNT91gxT8OQ1j7wpx9A8f61C3GUHQi0x2rygda1eqh0ET49Ms/s509/Torfrida2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="509" data-original-width="332" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcu30QkfBZ-UGjORRjrtdvBQ0A6gHiDa7uFOD81iRn44R_rxyngqjlvw2Rg_GpwgILWJMX2fR3nx-wuB6yCNTKmTQZdUtNT91gxT8OQ1j7wpx9A8f61C3GUHQi0x2rygda1eqh0ET49Ms/w261-h400/Torfrida2.jpg" width="261" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first pamphlet on birds<br /></td></tr></tbody></table></h1><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBuAii97RWjfM-jQF2NNQBtvTqZllVfw2xzJsgQmw6-dFjvWfeaW2USdX8FmOV_PGQHHRb6W5J8vYKQVcQyBuo_DdN9orUl32G-3MKfnFnD4hFtwleSF2hUJhAYGJT9rhVhiF1ICz8kMk/s2048/Torfrida1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1402" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBuAii97RWjfM-jQF2NNQBtvTqZllVfw2xzJsgQmw6-dFjvWfeaW2USdX8FmOV_PGQHHRb6W5J8vYKQVcQyBuo_DdN9orUl32G-3MKfnFnD4hFtwleSF2hUJhAYGJT9rhVhiF1ICz8kMk/w438-h640/Torfrida1.jpg" width="438" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The cover illustration is actually pasted into the frame<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2ZAQfQ6s5hTgok2dxoqR3USMie4fR08Dxw6Gx68eNaAm6MYbMTZ9QF666QjCtJf73Q0AmHWpOelcCW315qKlSOEd6N3P_iQQTbUNqs2aZ1Ba919GYnaVDpVYjk_GoksxhMl0MASVhdb8/s1032/Torfrida3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1032" data-original-width="704" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2ZAQfQ6s5hTgok2dxoqR3USMie4fR08Dxw6Gx68eNaAm6MYbMTZ9QF666QjCtJf73Q0AmHWpOelcCW315qKlSOEd6N3P_iQQTbUNqs2aZ1Ba919GYnaVDpVYjk_GoksxhMl0MASVhdb8/w273-h400/Torfrida3.jpg" width="273" /></a></div><br /><p>A few sample pages from the <i>More Birds of India</i> are included here to give a taste of the writing.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnsNZleLhPlGdJzKgfwAxNzcrYw46j7-stk-aptNfb6E8Xqo3KL4RcGoaL0KcJNHLPwYdxBeB1alJl6hwtH8IlOH3Qc6i1NKxZW4H6RJkAQ3JFpOnImH_9cexsemyaXEvlqxJTLtPp5Bw/s2048/torfrida4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1519" data-original-width="2048" height="474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnsNZleLhPlGdJzKgfwAxNzcrYw46j7-stk-aptNfb6E8Xqo3KL4RcGoaL0KcJNHLPwYdxBeB1alJl6hwtH8IlOH3Qc6i1NKxZW4H6RJkAQ3JFpOnImH_9cexsemyaXEvlqxJTLtPp5Bw/w640-h474/torfrida4.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1hTUmWc5arQ86caOA2WOzHZphaG4uDfiTsLPaWEbph16JSctq6z0NOH1GiJk-EtUs978f0aiZe37pddJLB2K1RRYDdjixNaSLsZPhuAJ20QgiWqqnZ1BGKqvXTBebZHDu6AFB-xNJzw0/s2048/torfrida5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1476" data-original-width="2048" height="462" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1hTUmWc5arQ86caOA2WOzHZphaG4uDfiTsLPaWEbph16JSctq6z0NOH1GiJk-EtUs978f0aiZe37pddJLB2K1RRYDdjixNaSLsZPhuAJ20QgiWqqnZ1BGKqvXTBebZHDu6AFB-xNJzw0/w640-h462/torfrida5.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxFycKseJVJ_PPs7li8BBbn7Xqe7QN7utvw5SHyylelMXX-HqOBiOVthKlczxzXrC3Il7Ffv6WuKspIFvcBApWkhptkzQ90Z2F0O6VLXGCc28dX_uonnSsWnKM20BBzrsmE9uELDxL78g/s2048/torfrida6.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1469" data-original-width="2048" height="460" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxFycKseJVJ_PPs7li8BBbn7Xqe7QN7utvw5SHyylelMXX-HqOBiOVthKlczxzXrC3Il7Ffv6WuKspIFvcBApWkhptkzQ90Z2F0O6VLXGCc28dX_uonnSsWnKM20BBzrsmE9uELDxL78g/w640-h460/torfrida6.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv8gyGxFlz3392jMQWEyMSBktYCgIvvnmyhQWrFEaoGWcwPFjHYdIN-u-J4URu-g2FBDdZj5wHTDF4t7IXJc4H2Z5inDnltboXRQX-JpTYJ1xrbHBUBHGk3eJi1iObsaBHeD69_f_e4sw/s2048/torfrida7.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1430" data-original-width="2048" height="446" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv8gyGxFlz3392jMQWEyMSBktYCgIvvnmyhQWrFEaoGWcwPFjHYdIN-u-J4URu-g2FBDdZj5wHTDF4t7IXJc4H2Z5inDnltboXRQX-JpTYJ1xrbHBUBHGk3eJi1iObsaBHeD69_f_e4sw/w640-h446/torfrida7.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqT2X5u9agpAoo8XGhgjV5wQOLKs4ASKpVYJlGH5lp-Gja_yvhd92zc2QSJHCc9yQdKVEHr2uSexLPOe_RxuiqfdD3Mzo4NOg9kg_2cZEULR5YBGb7kperamzj7z0X39-QbAgCQulGnvo/s2048/torfrida8.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1547" data-original-width="2048" height="484" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqT2X5u9agpAoo8XGhgjV5wQOLKs4ASKpVYJlGH5lp-Gja_yvhd92zc2QSJHCc9yQdKVEHr2uSexLPOe_RxuiqfdD3Mzo4NOg9kg_2cZEULR5YBGb7kperamzj7z0X39-QbAgCQulGnvo/w640-h484/torfrida8.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWTMfdTFrRCCksCyWNRqqP0GS9mtJrYgX7uCmAw8lxwbpm4I_B8PSM8_79Bh2CBi06w_jmydOXy-MkKApHuDxXXqGLodj1CL4fyW60ii_5r1M7RVKLYIG5bAb_wVjM-v8dBe_ia3YRKGo/s2048/torfrida9.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1505" data-original-width="2048" height="470" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWTMfdTFrRCCksCyWNRqqP0GS9mtJrYgX7uCmAw8lxwbpm4I_B8PSM8_79Bh2CBi06w_jmydOXy-MkKApHuDxXXqGLodj1CL4fyW60ii_5r1M7RVKLYIG5bAb_wVjM-v8dBe_ia3YRKGo/w640-h470/torfrida9.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOnGy86poQGjKJK9mMBJiEfVO1dQznpWPrg7OB6hLTHdfm2LFx8xHHj7YU2wBgMIQCnNZT6PmIOARzwlC8v41Vek6U1DT4BkqiTkfEns1Bw0rI7TcbEIDeJKy_qCRTFJdpm-Cvw8AU30w/s2048/torfrida10.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1456" data-original-width="2048" height="456" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOnGy86poQGjKJK9mMBJiEfVO1dQznpWPrg7OB6hLTHdfm2LFx8xHHj7YU2wBgMIQCnNZT6PmIOARzwlC8v41Vek6U1DT4BkqiTkfEns1Bw0rI7TcbEIDeJKy_qCRTFJdpm-Cvw8AU30w/w640-h456/torfrida10.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQoKOGNoqa7x-fGvaJAH_m9EHxZ0EV61Eqa5l477TqAc-116BNgwPFVajF-G2hOxh8MBY_6cKWQR-6gWshFXIqaVTCoxr6VDIQtvqiSD5ap8MkxzsfltvLsspR5XEBWml8W-ef4ylz7HY/s2048/torfrida11.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1484" data-original-width="2048" height="464" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQoKOGNoqa7x-fGvaJAH_m9EHxZ0EV61Eqa5l477TqAc-116BNgwPFVajF-G2hOxh8MBY_6cKWQR-6gWshFXIqaVTCoxr6VDIQtvqiSD5ap8MkxzsfltvLsspR5XEBWml8W-ef4ylz7HY/w640-h464/torfrida11.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p>Some of her writing may need to be examined in detail. In her flower book she claims that the name "Portia tree" for <i>Thespesia populnea</i> is from the Tamil Puvassai! Some claims are outright incorrect like the idea that <i>Osbeckia </i>is called "Tipu China" from "Tibet China", that would in fact be from the old name <i>Tibouchina.</i><br /></p>Shyamal L.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14523054793854154400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3126865061920461436.post-84713737681744490732020-09-16T09:37:00.013+05:302022-04-19T14:41:10.732+05:30A little-known naturalist from Chikkaballapur<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="firstchar">B</span>angalore has historically, being an administrative centre with a mild climate, had a fair share of colonial natural history collectors and naturalists. We know a fair bit about the botanists who walked this region and a bit about hunters of larger game but rather little about those who studied insects. A few years ago I became aware of the Campbell brothers from Ireland (but of Scottish origin). It took some time to put together the Wikipedia entries on them which is where more straightforward biographical details may be found.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After a trip to the Nandi Hills [to examine a large number of heritage Eucalyptus trees (nearly 200 years old) that the Horticulture Department had decided to cut down to the stump, supposedly because falling branches were seen by the Archaeological Survey of India as a threat to heritage buildings nearby], some of us decided to visit Chikballapur to examine the place of work of Dr <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Vincent_Campbell" target="_blank"><b>Thomas Vincent Campbell</b></a> (1863-16 December 1930) - "T.V." as he was known to his friends was a missionary doctor with the London Missionary Society and had worked briefly at Jammalamadugu where his older brother <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Howard_Campbell" target="_blank"><b>William Howard Campbell</b></a> (20 September 1859 - 18 February 1910) had worked as a missionary. Another brother back in Derry, David Callender Campbell (1860-1926) was also a keen observer of moths and a botanist. In their younger days in Derry, they and their siblings had put together a "family" museum of natural history that was said to be among the best in the region! William was the oldest of nine siblings and appears to have been the sturdiest considering that he was a champion rugby player at Edinburgh University. He moved to Cuddapah in 1884 and he may well have been the first person to see Jerdon's courser in life - Jerdon, Hume, and others appear to have dealt only with specimens obtained from local hunters. William collected moths and many of them appear to have gone to Lord Rothschild and nearly 60 taxa were described on their basis by Hampson. In 1909, he was to become director United Theological College Bangalore but ill health (sprue) forced him to return to Europe and he died in 1910 in Italy. His Cuddapah-born son Sir David Callender Campbell (1891 – 1963) became a prominent Northern Ireland politician. William's life is covered in some detail by Alan Knox while examining the only known egg of Jerdon's courser. A biography (a bit hagiographic though) of William in Telugu also exists.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">T.V.'s life on the other hand was hard to find information on, we knew of his insect specimens. He was in contact with E.A. Butler who specialized in the life histories of insects and T.V. seems to have taken off after him and not only colllected bugs (ie Hemiptera) but made notes on them which were used by Distant in the Fauna of British India. Several insects that T.V. collected have never been seen again. T.V. moved to Chikaballapur and worked at the Ralph Wardlaw Thompson Memorial Hospital which is now just known as the CSI Hospital and largely in disrepair. The hospital in its heyday was among the few in the region and treated a large number of patients. After suffering from tuberculosis, he also established a TB sanatorium at Madanapalli. Campbell treated nearly a thousand cases of cataract and was awarded a Kaisar-i-Hind medal for work in 1908. Campbell appears to have made a very large collection of insects from Cuddapah, Chikballapur, and from the Ooty area (where he would have spent summers). Many of these are now in the Natural History Museum in London and a good number are type specimens (ie, the specimens on the basis of which new species were described). Professor C.A. Viraktamath, entomologist and specialist on the leafhoppers, has for many years searched for a supposedly wingless<i> Gunhilda noctua </i>which was collected from the Nilgiris. Based on T.V.'s connections, I believe the place to look for them would be somewhere in the vicinity of the church in Ketti. Considering the massive alteration in habitats, there is a slight chance that the species has gone extinct but it is doubtful that it was so narrow in its distribution.<br /><i></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/W_H_Campbell.jpg/455px-W_H_Campbell.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="455" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/W_H_Campbell.jpg/455px-W_H_Campbell.jpg" width="243" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">W.H. Campbell<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/29/T_V_Campbell.jpg/317px-T_V_Campbell.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="479" data-original-width="317" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/29/T_V_Campbell.jpg/317px-T_V_Campbell.jpg" width="212" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr T.V. Campbell<br /></td></tr></tbody></table></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8f/TV_Campbell_home_Chikballapur.jpg/1024px-TV_Campbell_home_Chikballapur.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="300" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8f/TV_Campbell_home_Chikballapur.jpg/1024px-TV_Campbell_home_Chikballapur.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">T.V.'s former home in Chikaballapur<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3f/TV_Campbell_1912.jpg/963px-TV_Campbell_1912.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="638" data-original-width="800" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3f/TV_Campbell_1912.jpg/963px-TV_Campbell_1912.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr TV attending to patients in Chikaballapur, c. 1912<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3UZBvvDIGHttxP4IVpD2WukpVSuR6Mo3AhTFSJu3_hNxKdiNUyO0anQtF4eC3RmrufPj4Lyg6GCltUTSBv-hTdzQI9lttZetj2X4ab5U-6ia5pRRH3lEXiISWuTaJpd7nf7KE1hUixaM/s2048/tv+campbell2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1679" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3UZBvvDIGHttxP4IVpD2WukpVSuR6Mo3AhTFSJu3_hNxKdiNUyO0anQtF4eC3RmrufPj4Lyg6GCltUTSBv-hTdzQI9lttZetj2X4ab5U-6ia5pRRH3lEXiISWuTaJpd7nf7KE1hUixaM/s320/tv+campbell2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A lane inside the hospital premises named after T.V.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9KbaxYK8DEPcnWU4GLIAfF1AeHG4isPP-zmKe93DZjcJcSgCjRBQC4LpyPAMs2hGdRByh9MtnWuCQg6V4IAjYOMVqT3X3avfffpQAOnXzAsg_Zz2X60Px_jEIPprnBPlhDAQZXRKMEzA/s2048/Wardlaw+Thompson.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1396" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9KbaxYK8DEPcnWU4GLIAfF1AeHG4isPP-zmKe93DZjcJcSgCjRBQC4LpyPAMs2hGdRByh9MtnWuCQg6V4IAjYOMVqT3X3avfffpQAOnXzAsg_Zz2X60Px_jEIPprnBPlhDAQZXRKMEzA/s320/Wardlaw+Thompson.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Foundation stone of the hospital<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwm2w_8zsWzgkeaZsxIqTkPu_nrmvq9eqQDJzR3iSCmOHhyphenhyphenbSXFyNkqEkPGvN9lWjmzM55HUcc7eNdjAviS08KeUdIOxm91egwbsD4ZfoJUELtjrXzUjo0kBFlOF3eqaqNpHGuKY0cikM/s1386/RWT.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="447" data-original-width="1386" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwm2w_8zsWzgkeaZsxIqTkPu_nrmvq9eqQDJzR3iSCmOHhyphenhyphenbSXFyNkqEkPGvN9lWjmzM55HUcc7eNdjAviS08KeUdIOxm91egwbsD4ZfoJUELtjrXzUjo0kBFlOF3eqaqNpHGuKY0cikM/w640-h206/RWT.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Wardlaw Thompson Hospital <a href="https://archive.org/details/chronicleoflond1914lond_5/page/151/mode/1up" target="_blank">c. 1914</a><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1vZ5fC-KHxcbwdbDuSRVw2bCpnXv1gLwtJ_qUuPMqWm8F85VMbZvFf72rhII8izu9TT_huKBuSOyO02-mrybalKt8y-U2A8IT-Ywq9aaCvDR1wpjaTO0UtQGIi3zhGcq1yOwd8vnGfEs/s659/Gunhilda.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="659" height="335" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1vZ5fC-KHxcbwdbDuSRVw2bCpnXv1gLwtJ_qUuPMqWm8F85VMbZvFf72rhII8izu9TT_huKBuSOyO02-mrybalKt8y-U2A8IT-Ywq9aaCvDR1wpjaTO0UtQGIi3zhGcq1yOwd8vnGfEs/w400-h335/Gunhilda.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Gunhilda noctua</i> - a monotypic genus never seen<br />since T.V. found them for W.L. Distant to describe in 1918<br />from <a href="https://archive.org/details/rhynchota07dist/page/88/mode/1up" target="_blank"><i>The Fauna of British India. Rhynchota Vol.II</i></a><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Wikipedia entries can be found at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Vincent_Campbell" target="_blank">T.V. Campbell</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Howard_Campbell" target="_blank">W.H. Campbell</a>. Many people helped in the development of these articles. Roy Vickery kindly obtained a hard to find obituary of T.V., Alan Knox sent me some additional sources on W.H.C. and Susan Daniel, librarian at the United Theological College was extremely helpful. Arun Nandvar drove and S. Subramanya joined our little adventure in Chikaballapur. Dr Eric Lott made enquiries with the SOAS and LMS archives but found little. My entomologist friends and mentors, Prashanth Mohanraj and Yeshwanth H.M. shared their enthusiasm in discovering more about T.V. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">POSTSCRIPT - April 2022: S. Subramanya and I visited Jammalamadugu (and nearby places including Buchupalli where WHC had found a large pelicanry). It seems that the hospital that TVC began continues to prosper. It seems to have gained the favour of the political class thanks to the association of the former Chief Minister Dr Y S R Reddy who was not only born in the Campbell Hospital but worked there too. Apparently very little is known of the work of W.H. Campbell who seems to have largely been active as a missionary. The village of Buchupalli where he had described a large pelicanry seems to have no signs of any large water birds and absolutely no memory among its current day residents (who might be three or four generations down from those that lived in the 1890s).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE1-iXOD5Im1grgw1N9RkHC1H6XDG3gXvK7SZE3UtKx8cwHb0YdgX5XpJTs6C6INz602uC4iXzYv98esZ7YbTRkdbsZ-kAlTHDMqX94E8zWuOkuuBdQaY4vsafnlzQhUDym_GrKneujmdgL4fYAyW74E-6V3LEFb-WSFjGpNzIxTQWzRIyNHCzOcGx/s4000/campbell7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="4000" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE1-iXOD5Im1grgw1N9RkHC1H6XDG3gXvK7SZE3UtKx8cwHb0YdgX5XpJTs6C6INz602uC4iXzYv98esZ7YbTRkdbsZ-kAlTHDMqX94E8zWuOkuuBdQaY4vsafnlzQhUDym_GrKneujmdgL4fYAyW74E-6V3LEFb-WSFjGpNzIxTQWzRIyNHCzOcGx/s320/campbell7.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The CSI Campbell Hospital<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3BDu22o6z6GoQi6QBg5Fc5u5jkwUh-DPANm_DoPd4mJ0_PL5DAX8YFpvFAGflXps4QBXNjvVXLnFIfdjPbBPDlH0uweKh3-cGP9fkwrF9t_xgdlwYyerbkx4oUviy4GGVHBPOBuPbTkCKJmbdjzMlVhhpmcBaaffaznIhKIgMqQifdHTd8ZGNVgpZ/s600/campbell6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="270" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3BDu22o6z6GoQi6QBg5Fc5u5jkwUh-DPANm_DoPd4mJ0_PL5DAX8YFpvFAGflXps4QBXNjvVXLnFIfdjPbBPDlH0uweKh3-cGP9fkwrF9t_xgdlwYyerbkx4oUviy4GGVHBPOBuPbTkCKJmbdjzMlVhhpmcBaaffaznIhKIgMqQifdHTd8ZGNVgpZ/s320/campbell6.jpg" width="144" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The entrance<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2YV0nJeIH05rij23l-COTl56Pf27IF5QxIJBhN3J2odGFf7vBCLgd1dHXDHVqZLqMK_3piwPAfeZnJyWUxDC7iHWWWRcD2HLjZK1tX0CA1YlWx4T8OqFKSPMRBSfTarboWzW5-ayGSJBQTpoViy_c-Sqs40GmydPxGp6fUM4XwW2GbGFSCbhTq1H9/s4000/campbell5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="1800" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2YV0nJeIH05rij23l-COTl56Pf27IF5QxIJBhN3J2odGFf7vBCLgd1dHXDHVqZLqMK_3piwPAfeZnJyWUxDC7iHWWWRcD2HLjZK1tX0CA1YlWx4T8OqFKSPMRBSfTarboWzW5-ayGSJBQTpoViy_c-Sqs40GmydPxGp6fUM4XwW2GbGFSCbhTq1H9/w180-h400/campbell5.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inscription below the statue with a gratuitous knighthood! <br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6zJgHE62IxN-rZHvz9fgXPg03lRV5Yn0exbC9Qdw-vmdbQ6Ho75ySrANAOjPokKZOGlDhiUhD-VSsxAPO3ZmId-QDgQP9pD1ZhV8Nq_YKF6xY1Z_TEZJ69Ob9Bk1R5DZ2YSIkPlZ3Gl0xZ7QgsB9-ZM9npwNaS_CB_Mpj52LR50uHAd-50oiEZNB9/s2289/Campbell4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2289" data-original-width="1440" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6zJgHE62IxN-rZHvz9fgXPg03lRV5Yn0exbC9Qdw-vmdbQ6Ho75ySrANAOjPokKZOGlDhiUhD-VSsxAPO3ZmId-QDgQP9pD1ZhV8Nq_YKF6xY1Z_TEZJ69Ob9Bk1R5DZ2YSIkPlZ3Gl0xZ7QgsB9-ZM9npwNaS_CB_Mpj52LR50uHAd-50oiEZNB9/w251-h400/Campbell4.jpg" width="251" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr TV holds a disarticulated stethoscope!<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYxVId5kHVN9qRkvLKErJFrGW7veXVhE_NF0tn7wjkiD7U2UdNtLte2VU660cxCFDaKVUOMFMRL141-clY3Jxo3cpj1J5T0a3apAfRDw3j8bhqbZ9HTRsMFxAQ83SUDeqijv22-RHgmp453Usrki9Hv7O433GPGf1_qRNvBpu1MaAOCBx83LUhywSC/s3280/campbell3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3280" data-original-width="1476" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYxVId5kHVN9qRkvLKErJFrGW7veXVhE_NF0tn7wjkiD7U2UdNtLte2VU660cxCFDaKVUOMFMRL141-clY3Jxo3cpj1J5T0a3apAfRDw3j8bhqbZ9HTRsMFxAQ83SUDeqijv22-RHgmp453Usrki9Hv7O433GPGf1_qRNvBpu1MaAOCBx83LUhywSC/s320/campbell3.jpg" width="144" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKe5jJrxn65BLTkryb8c4TwubT_JrXl5hqJWW0WtR0_at0ifkqdz3YzruhKEBYNTvty6fiayBORKGuhrXitbPzRrXFPN9KbMigjmZudC_VVjgeZ4UYK-SPR9j8AwkEe1sWxc_YOMQb8HOr65haLf8CtWmOuRhXjD8onygWhlqtNuXPhcJ7qTA6Byld/s3280/campbell2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1476" data-original-width="3280" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKe5jJrxn65BLTkryb8c4TwubT_JrXl5hqJWW0WtR0_at0ifkqdz3YzruhKEBYNTvty6fiayBORKGuhrXitbPzRrXFPN9KbMigjmZudC_VVjgeZ4UYK-SPR9j8AwkEe1sWxc_YOMQb8HOr65haLf8CtWmOuRhXjD8onygWhlqtNuXPhcJ7qTA6Byld/s320/campbell2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_taJFPCNtMv_Dgi7RceQJxQ2torSg9iGwdy1G0KR9BWqMs__0m2-50jp1GlCPHWkGXYZIzy9FxAw90PZZI7SsL8BdRW22jxT6Ku0CuHscjtdKCySnLUadJeEDuij67j2N1phxgQ92hTCywbppr2EnXsgufplXCbpxh1y5Y5Ag-KIW4aF-Eu0CxVo3/s2099/campbell1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2099" data-original-width="1460" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_taJFPCNtMv_Dgi7RceQJxQ2torSg9iGwdy1G0KR9BWqMs__0m2-50jp1GlCPHWkGXYZIzy9FxAw90PZZI7SsL8BdRW22jxT6Ku0CuHscjtdKCySnLUadJeEDuij67j2N1phxgQ92hTCywbppr2EnXsgufplXCbpxh1y5Y5Ag-KIW4aF-Eu0CxVo3/s320/campbell1.jpg" width="223" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"></div>
Shyamal L.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14523054793854154400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3126865061920461436.post-16620249152189288152020-06-23T09:48:00.009+05:302020-10-01T18:29:53.195+05:30Some American links to Indian ornithology<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="firstchar">O</span>ne of the joys of being in India is the complete lack of access to a good library, and that makes one keep a list of books to find so that you know how to make the best of limited time when one get an opportunity to visit a well-stocked library. It took me nearly ten years before I finally managed to browse through Max Nicholson's <i>Art of Birdwatching</i> (1931) on a brief visit to the library of the Zoological Society of London. I had been looking for the context in which he had talked about how a so-called "open mind" was absolutely useless for scientific enquiry [a belief that starkly contradicts the argumentative Indian]. <br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>"One cannot observe without a theory, and what seems the simplest of
ornithological tasks - to go out of doors and look out for something
worth recording - is in reality one of the hardest… It is a mistake to
imagine that complete impartiality and freedom from preconceived ideas
is the qualification for the perfect observer. The cow has a remarkably
open mind, yet it has never been found to reach a high degree of
civilisation." <br /></blockquote></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nicholson also inspired another writer across the Atlantic. This was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Hickey" target="_blank">Joseph Hickey</a>, a student of literature who moved to ornithology. I had heard of his work through a rather tenuous series of connections. <br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQpDWdQ9iZz7tou5h0tfQW6CwAwVYo6S55jQps5JPpAi8-mved1D9jwq4EUBvtV5JaaZq6HT5u9FFyYMreJLPVwzpqx6rcdYQKQ8soN6mkjHUr_CovZIL6zDbEjGe1ycB6EJPGkQ_ZHFQ/s508/Hickey.png" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="508" data-original-width="417" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQpDWdQ9iZz7tou5h0tfQW6CwAwVYo6S55jQps5JPpAi8-mved1D9jwq4EUBvtV5JaaZq6HT5u9FFyYMreJLPVwzpqx6rcdYQKQ8soN6mkjHUr_CovZIL6zDbEjGe1ycB6EJPGkQ_ZHFQ/w263-h320/Hickey.png" title="From obituary in the Auk" width="249" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i><a href="https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/auk/v111n02/p0450-p0452.pdf" target="_blank">The Auk</a></i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One of the leading lights of bird study and popularization in India, Dr Joseph George, a major influence on the Bangalore bird-enthusiasts circle, had undertaken several of his earliest and pioneering studies on bird populations in Dehra Dun. In 1948, a Mrs M.D. Wright conducted a census of birds in Dehra Dun and wrote out her observations in the <i>Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society</i>. One of her inspirations was the book by Joseph Hickey, <i>A Guide to Birdwatching</i> (1943). It is unclear if Dr George actually took part in her census but she influenced his own studies in Dehra Dun (since he cites her work) and they doubtless met and I strongly believe that Dr George actually read this book too given his own censuses of birds in Dehra Dun. It was not until a few weeks ago that I got my hands on Hickey's book thanks to the Internet Archive and their emergency pandemic-response library which allows in-copyright books to be borrowed and read online. Now Hickey was influenced by many giants including Ernst Mayr and Aldo Leopold. He recounted among his ornithological mantras, the one from Ernst Mayr about having a long term line of enquiry while watching birds - in Mayr's words <span class="st">"<i>everybody's</i> got to have a <i>problem</i>"</span>. On the first person Hickey met on the field watching birds, he writes:<div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>The pleasures of meeting a kindred spirit are much more subjective but they are nonetheless real and they often ripen into lifelong friendships. In grade school it never occurred to my chums or to me that bird books were written for anyone other than boys, and that grown men and women liked to watch flickers and killdeers just the way we did. Our beloved scoutmaster, the Reverend Basil Hall, had given some of us a helping hand, but bird study still seemed like a boys' game. It was an almost stupefying shock when Richard A. Herbert and I, aged 14, quite by accident found an elegantly dressed gentleman watching a chickadee one February day in New York City's Bronx Park. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Johnston_(Theosophist)" target="_blank">Charles Johnston</a>, who looked not unlike <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Evans_Hughes" target="_blank">Charles Evans Hughes</a> to us, had been a distinguished member of the British Civil Service in India. He was kindly and apparently ready to answer questions. He answered them for two full hours, probably with no little amusement. The decades between us seemed to vanish and from that point on, our bird study took on dignity and purpose. He helped us many times more in the years that followed.<br /></blockquote><div></div><blockquote>I tell this story to illustrate how an interest in ornithology can span any barrier, and how people of widely diverse cultures can rapidly find a common bond of understanding. There are several ways to get in touch with other bird students. One is to attend meetings. </blockquote><br /></div>
Now an Indian Civil Servant interested in birds had to be examined and I searched the internet for Charles Johnston and found one that was interested in theosophy (but the Wikipedia entry then had no mention of any interest in natural history). I found also that a Johnston had been active in New York birding circles but was not sure if the two were the same until I found an entry on the <a href="https://theosophy.wiki/en/Charles_Johnston" target="_blank">Theosophy Wiki</a>. The other major Theosophist (at least briefly) and ornithologist was Hume and I had to check for encounters between the two. It seems that the two could not have been in great contact. Johnston married the niece of Madame Blavatsky (with whom Hume had fallen out) and entered the Indian Civil Service only in 1888, well after Hume's exit from government service. Johnston worked only for two years before suffering from malaria led to his resignation and he moved to the United States in 1896 after treatment in Austria. His close friends in New York included fellow theosophists <a href="https://theosophy.wiki/en/William_Quan_Judge" target="_blank">W. Q. Judge</a> and Clement Acton Griscom, Jr. (1868-1918) who was the father of the ornithologist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Griscom" target="_blank">Ludlow Griscom</a>. It would appear (esp. from the absence of any mention in the Bombay Natural History Society journal) that Johnston began his serious bird studies only in the United States and may well have been an important influence in Griscom's life. Allan Cruickshank's <a href="https://archive.org/details/birdsaround13crui" target="_blank"><i>Birds around New York city</i></a> (1942) includes many notes by Johnston, who is described as an "experienced and meticulous observer" (p. 289).<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Recommended reading</b><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li>Hickey, Joseph (1975). <a href="https://archive.org/details/guidetobirdwatch00hick" target="_blank">A guide to bird watching.</a> New York:Dover. [This Internet Archive copy (which can be borrowed) is signed by Hickey. This book was his master's work, under the supervision of Aldo Leopold!]</li></ul></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li>Wright, M.D. (1949). <a href="https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/48732130" target="_blank">A bird count in Dehra Dun.</a> J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 48(3):570-572.</li><li><a href="https://www.eagletimes.com/lifestyles/birding-by-sight-and-sound/article_47e0b611-2d2f-5be4-8d8d-063bd2611e80.html" target="_blank">Birding by sight and sound <br /></a></li></ul><div><b>Postscript</b></div><div>Dr Joseph George (1st October 1921 – 9th July 2012) was educated at St Joseph's College, Trichy and at St. John's College, Agra, He researched polymer chemistry under <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Francis_Mark" target="_blank">Herman Francis Marks</a> at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Research Institute between 1946 and 1948, returning to the Forest Research Institute at Dehra Dun. He worked for a while at the CBRI, Roorkee and at IPIRI, Bangalore.<br /></div></div>Shyamal L.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14523054793854154400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3126865061920461436.post-42686296789065146762020-05-27T13:59:00.005+05:302020-05-28T12:39:24.647+05:30Science in disasters and disasters in science<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="firstchar">L</span>ocusts are powerful agents in history, and just like malaria and other diseases (especially those that affected empire) they helped fund a lot of biological research, both in India and elsewhere. Unlike India, with a short institutional memory, aided by governments that simply cannot maintain archives (or even actively erases inconvenient material), the Chinese rulers maintained meticulous records of locust (<i>Locusta migratoria</i>) damage that go back about 1900 years. As India slowly dismantles long-term government organizations to be replaced by supposedly more profitable contract-only private entities it is worth looking at some pioneers in locust research and what was achieved.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXB8TL0D_rNhyke8eE9we38vl3R0av9RMTHTXDYPWR0_qNrjwpfV64qXnwpoRUT8GO_x5muPxu91MjCtGMMm5h1DHVuw6gaiDrFxksB5FxmvOUVf9DINxRw-TXYaiM6xeRvEMFJhYQe9Q/s1600/locusts.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1038" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXB8TL0D_rNhyke8eE9we38vl3R0av9RMTHTXDYPWR0_qNrjwpfV64qXnwpoRUT8GO_x5muPxu91MjCtGMMm5h1DHVuw6gaiDrFxksB5FxmvOUVf9DINxRw-TXYaiM6xeRvEMFJhYQe9Q/s400/locusts.jpg" width="323" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Locust reporting in China (A geographical), B (annual trend), C (decadal trend) over 2000 years<br />
Among the interesting findings was a strong 30-year cycle, as also 10-year cycles - recalling<br />
the era of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunspottery" target="_blank">sunspottery </a>and perhaps an overemphasis on what are now called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Br%C3%BCckner-Egeson-Lockyer_cycle" target="_blank">BEL cycles</a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The golden years of locust research were in the two decades following 1945 thanks to an exiled upper-class Russian, Sir <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Uvarov" target="_blank">Boris Uvarov</a>. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadia_Waloff" target="_blank">Nadia Waloff</a>, herself a Russian emigre, writes in her biography of Uvarov (perhaps they were distantly related) that in the 20 years before his death there were nearly 7000 research papers (that is nearly 1 article a day!) published on locusts, largely from the London based Anti-Locust Research Centre (ALRC). The ALRC itself had been founded by Uvarov, who migrated shortly after the 1917 revolution to England.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE4TBwtmisAqTaZV-VAo3kOOPbrObZjQ_17eVxLKuUHA6FDyCW2ugEWPL74KtKeP7C7PX2mH4imqssQb4NKiNm4TQVSEVsd3bGffm6hJMSCovKoHiZGM0ArXrfYQH3t38uzeMyFre6wCM/s1600/Uvarov+passport.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="476" data-original-width="640" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE4TBwtmisAqTaZV-VAo3kOOPbrObZjQ_17eVxLKuUHA6FDyCW2ugEWPL74KtKeP7C7PX2mH4imqssQb4NKiNm4TQVSEVsd3bGffm6hJMSCovKoHiZGM0ArXrfYQH3t38uzeMyFre6wCM/s320/Uvarov+passport.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Uvarov's Russian passport<br />
From Fedotova, Anastasia; Kouprianov, Alexei (2016). Archival research reveals the true date of birth of the father of locust phase theory, Sir Boris Uvarov, FRS. Euroasian Entomological Journal. 15(4):321–327.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The Russian class struggle of 1917 led to scientists (who were mostly from the upper classes) being either made ineligible for continued work at universities or worse. "White Russians" who conspicuously supported the Tsars or, in the later period, opposed leaders like Stalin routinely ended up in the Gulags, often vanishing without a trace. A few escaped to other parts and found work, Uvarov being among the lucky ones. He became interested in natural history at a very young age thanks to a present from his father of a Russian translation of the German <a href="https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/124464" target="_blank">6 tome work</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brehms_Tierleben" target="_blank"><i>Tierleben </i></a>by Alfred Brehm. He then studied entomology, preferring interactive learning at the informal Russian Entomological Society, to the formal courses offered by Mikhail Rimsky-Korsakov (the entomologist son of the famous Russian composer, of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M93qXQWaBdE" target="_blank">flight of the bumble-bee</a> fame). Uvarov's exit to England was possible because of chance encounters with wartime English entomologists, but he had also established a name already in Russia. Prior to his research, it was thought that the migratory locusts were a distinct species but he identified ecological conditions that altered a sedentary grasshopper that looks quite different, and found in smaller numbers to produce young with altered form that became gregarious and migratory. This has been called the Phase Theory (and of course theory does not mean hypothesis) and in a very far-sighted approach he and his team would later work out causes and mechanisms ranging from the spectrum of the ultimate to the proximate - looking at ecology, endocrine function, sensory functions etc. and how reduced "<i>social distance</i>" converted a sedentary high-fecundity breeder to a long-winged less-fecund migratory form. Waloff herself examined the polymorphism of winged- and wingless-ness in various groups of insects and compared them with ideas on ecological stability (and perhaps they were precursors to ideas on r-K selection). They also boldly experimented with new techniques such as using radioactive isotopes to study dispersion (albeit in bugs).<br />
<br />
The ALRC had recognized the locust problem as being something that needed collaboration across artificial borders like nations (in other words, not <i>atmanirbharata</i>). Several Indian researchers also took part in this international network of locust research. These included <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hem_Singh_Pruthi" target="_blank">H S Pruthi</a> (who established the institutional framework for collaboration after Indian Independence), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Afzal_Husain" target="_blank">Afzal Hussain</a> (now considered the father of entomology in Pakistan) and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelsetti_Ramachandra_Rao" target="_blank">Y Ramachandra Rao</a> (who retired to live in Bangalore). With the end of the Second World War and colonialism, research shifted from colonial sponsors to the United Nations, an attempt at a democratic trans-national institution. <br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-obvzXKOMZzPJyymcM4PIa9AEMz1ZQDX-LwVIiWlcLl9jpcNuTNlZACRCDrLJch_JtiMDgALXtcu3BBVP-CWyoCCO60Qft9sgDZmWnHRXEVIAZgMOkbxyy-gFg-oRzH-R1PlNyLAx-6E/s1600/loc+max.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="705" data-original-width="1110" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-obvzXKOMZzPJyymcM4PIa9AEMz1ZQDX-LwVIiWlcLl9jpcNuTNlZACRCDrLJch_JtiMDgALXtcu3BBVP-CWyoCCO60Qft9sgDZmWnHRXEVIAZgMOkbxyy-gFg-oRzH-R1PlNyLAx-6E/s400/loc+max.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From Haskell, P.T. (1970). The future of locust and grasshopper control. Outlook on Agriculture 6(4):166-174.<br />
The range of influence of <i>Schistocerca gregaria<br /></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now, it is hard to imagine what might have happened to Uvarov if he had stayed on in Russia. The future for people who understood Darwinian evolution and were capable of synthesizing it with ideas from genetics was positively bleak. Russian science went from this class struggle which evicted traditional intellectual actors from the leisure class (often assisted by royal patronage) [with access to books, intellectual circles (often with entry bars), space to hold material, and ability to buy tools] to a more accessible system with tax-payer funded universities, supported by libraries, museums, journals run by democratized organizations, and other infrastructure. The transition was truly ugly and sad. On its way it had to encounter demagogues like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trofim_Lysenko" target="_blank">Trofim Lysenko</a> who drew an easy to understand (simple but wrong) connection between the idea of genes determining organism outcomes, to eugenics, and to fascism - and that simple communication to the powers-that-be led to the killing of many scientists, and the removal of many into the margins. Lysenko's appeals were what ordinary people wanted to hear, he came from a working class upbringing unlike the supposed snobs he was up against and, in his breeding experiments with wheat, or in his tree-planting methodologies (to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Plan_for_the_Transformation_of_Nature" target="_blank">combat a famine</a> that was thought to be climate-induced) he made use of ideas that organisms could change their characteristics when faced with challenges, the idea that outcomes were not limited by genes - ideas which had a social appeal that fitted with egalitarianism.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKvq9tAU6P_K8OR6-taY_57ODI-XHx2oGnI1URnLAhVNLoK98UgRve9KsiwAUiS-8Pms5bnhurlzTBSd62418MFJNknQymTP34eTohNJp5QBiNwTjqgHjJyzHfceDSXnUPgLCu-I9q65Q/s1600/A+S+Serebrovsky+1925.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="505" data-original-width="385" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKvq9tAU6P_K8OR6-taY_57ODI-XHx2oGnI1URnLAhVNLoK98UgRve9KsiwAUiS-8Pms5bnhurlzTBSd62418MFJNknQymTP34eTohNJp5QBiNwTjqgHjJyzHfceDSXnUPgLCu-I9q65Q/s320/A+S+Serebrovsky+1925.jpg" width="243" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A S Serebrovsky (c. 1925) who worked on chicken<br />
breeding, conservation, genetics, and evolution - <br />
a little-known figure in science.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
It would be wasteful to write more here about the political history of Soviet
science as there are numerous works on the topic. It is worth noting however
that Russian scientists, contrary to Mayr's version of biological
history, had indeed synthesized ideas on evolution with ideas from
genetics. Unfortunately there seems to be little written about it in
English, but it includes scientists like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Koltsov" target="_blank">Nikolai Koltsov</a> (who was
probably poisoned), and many of his students including <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Sergeevich_Serebrovsky" target="_blank">A S Serebrovsky</a> (who is credited with coining the word gene pool, producing an early evolutionary synthesis, and thinking up the sterile male technique of pest management - fortunately he was spared his life - Mayr credits Dobzhansky (escaped to the West) among others in the synthesis but many of his ideas may well have come from Serebrovsky), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Pavlovich_Efroimson" target="_blank">Efroimson</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Levit" target="_blank">Simon Levit</a> (killed), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izrail_Agol" target="_blank">Izrail Agol</a> (killed), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Vavilov" target="_blank">Nikolai Vavilov</a> (killed) ... the list goes on.<br />
<br />
India is now in a very interesting phase where ordinary plants, cow dung, and urine, with miraculous properties are touted as cures for coronaviruses. We will soon see similar claims to rid us of locusts. These are claims that appeal to those without resources. These claims are made by many including politicians and while they receive sniggers from the English speakers across social media, it is hard not to sense that this is a reaction against the snobbery of the English speaking and scientific upper classes. There is an opportunity for progressive thought and action in this disaster but it is not going to be an easy one, most certainly not if <b>gross inequalities</b> cannot be seen and tackled.<br />
<br />
<b>Further reading</b></div>
<div class="highwire-citation-info">
<div class="highwire-article-citation highwire-citation-type-highwire-article" data-apath="/pnas/108/35/14521.atom" data-node-nid="149721" data-pisa-master="pnas;1100189108" data-pisa="pnas;108/35/14521" id="node149721">
<div class="highwire-cite highwire-cite-highwire-article highwire-citation-jcore-standard clearfix">
<div class="highwire-cite-title">
<div class="highwire-cite-metadata">
<ul>
<li><span class="highwire-citation-authors"><span class="highwire-citation-author first" data-delta="0"><span class="nlm-given-names">Huidong</span> <span class="nlm-surname">Tian</span></span>, <span class="highwire-citation-author" data-delta="1"><span class="nlm-given-names">Leif C.</span> <span class="nlm-surname">Stige</span></span>, <span class="highwire-citation-author" data-delta="2"><span class="nlm-given-names">Bernard</span> <span class="nlm-surname">Cazelles</span></span>, <span class="highwire-citation-author" data-delta="3"><span class="nlm-given-names">Kyrre Linne</span> <span class="nlm-surname">Kausrud</span></span>, <span class="highwire-citation-author" data-delta="4"><span class="nlm-given-names">Rune</span> <span class="nlm-surname">Svarverud</span></span>, <span class="highwire-citation-author" data-delta="5"><span class="nlm-given-names">Nils C.</span> <span class="nlm-surname">Stenseth</span></span>, <span class="highwire-citation-author" data-delta="6"><span class="nlm-given-names">Zhibin</span> <span class="nlm-surname">Zhang (2011).</span></span></span> Reconstruction of a 1,910-y-long locust series reveals consistent associations with climate fluctuations in China.<span class="highwire-cite-metadata-journal highwire-cite-metadata"> Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</span><span class="highwire-cite-metadata-date highwire-cite-metadata"> </span><span class="highwire-cite-metadata-volume highwire-cite-metadata">108 </span><span class="highwire-cite-metadata-issue highwire-cite-metadata">(35):</span><span class="highwire-cite-metadata-pages highwire-cite-metadata">14521-14526. </span><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1100189108" target="_blank"><span class="highwire-cite-metadata-doi highwire-cite-metadata">10.1073/pnas.1100189108 </span></a></li>
<li><span class="highwire-cite-metadata-doi highwire-cite-metadata">Ings, Simon (2016 ) </span><span class="highwire-cite-metadata-doi highwire-cite-metadata"><i>Stalin and the Scientists: A History of Triumph and Tragedy 1905–1953. </i>Faber and Faber. </span></li>
<li><span class="highwire-cite-metadata-doi highwire-cite-metadata"><a href="http://www.fao.org/ag/locusts/common/ecg/347_en_DLG1e.pdf" target="_blank">FAO desert locust biology brochure</a></span></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Shyamal L.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14523054793854154400noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3126865061920461436.post-72628477193636775552020-04-07T11:35:00.004+05:302020-10-06T16:49:47.930+05:30Ornithologists in cartoons<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1b/Badminton_India.jpg/1280px-Badminton_India.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="480" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1b/Badminton_India.jpg/1280px-Badminton_India.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From: The Graphic. 25 April 1874.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="firstchar">I</span>t is said that the modern version of badminton evolved from a game played in Poona (some sources name the game itself as <i>Poona</i>). When I saw this picture from 1874 about five years ago, I gave little thought to it. Revisiting it after five years after some research on one of A.O. Hume's <a href="http://muscicapa.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-power-of-networks-19th-century-tale.html" target="_blank">ornithological collaborators</a>, I have a strong hunch that one of the people depicted in the picture is recognizable although it is not going to be easy to confirm this.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/George_Vidal_1907.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="362" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/George_Vidal_1907.jpg" width="265" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/George_Vidal_cartoon_1907.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="783" data-original-width="471" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/George_Vidal_cartoon_1907.jpg" width="192" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I recently created a Wikipedia entry for a British administrator who worked in the Bombay Presidency, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_William_Vidal" target="_blank">G.W. Vidal</a>, when I came across a <a href="http://www.green.gen.name/vidal/D5.htm#i1504" target="_blank">genealogy website</a> (whose maintainer unfortunately was uncontactable by email) with notes on his life that included a photograph in profile and a cartoon. The photograph was apparently taken by Vidal himself, a keen amateur photographer apart from being a snake and bird enthusiast. Like naturalists of that epoch, many of his specimens were shot, skinned or pickled and sent off to museums or specialists. He was an active collaborator of Hume and contributed a long note in<i> Stray Feathers</i> on the birds of Ratnagiri District, where he was a senior ICS official. He continued to contribute notes after the ornithological exit of Hume, to the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. This gives further support for an idea I have suggested before that a key stimulus for the formation of the BNHS was the end of <i>Stray Feathers</i>. Vidal's mother has the claim for being the first women novelist of Australia. Interestingly one of his daughters, Norah, married Major Robert Mitchell Betham (2 May 1864 – 14 March 1940), another keen amateur ornithologist born in Dapoli, who is well-known in Bangalore birding circles for being the first to note Lesser Floricans in the region. Now Vidal was involved in popularizing badminton in India, apparently creating some of the rules that allowed matches to be played. The man at the left in the sketch in the 1874 edition of <i>The Graphic </i>looks quite like Vidal, but who knows! What do you think?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
PS: Vidal sent bird specimens to Hume, and at least two subspecies have been named from his specimens after him - <i>Perdicula asiatica vidali</i> and <i>Todiramphus chloris vidali.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
For more information on Vidal, do take a look at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_William_Vidal" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Wikipedia entry</a>. More information from readers is welcome as usual.<br />
<br />
PS: 26-July-2020: It would appear that an old <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fives" target="_blank">Fives </a>court (Fives was something like squash played with the bare hand) near Sholapur was also of some ornithological interest [on lesser florican]:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>I think I can safely say that there is only one place in India where this bird has been shot, and where I have shot it during every month in the year, and that is Sholapur. There was a grass and baubul jungle near the <u>old Fives court</u> on the Bijapur Road which always contained florican.</i> - "Felix" (1906). Recollections of a Bison & Tiger Hunter. London:J.M. Dent & Co. <a href="https://archive.org/details/dli.granth.110552/page/183/mode/1up" target="_blank">p. 183.</a></blockquote>
</div>
<br />Shyamal L.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14523054793854154400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3126865061920461436.post-82633910770999622752019-12-06T09:54:00.005+05:302020-10-20T19:08:50.255+05:30Some little-known bird books from India - M.R.N. Holmer<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span class="firstchar">A</span> fair number of books have been written on the birds of India.
Many colonial-era books have been taken out of the clutches of antique
book sellers and wealthy hoarders and made available to researchers at large by the Biodiversity Heritage Library but there are still many extremely
rare books that few have read or written about. Here is a small sampling of them which I hope to produce as a series of short entries.<br />
<br />
One of these is by M.R.N. Homer (Mary Rebekah Norris Holmer - 6 June 1875 - 2 September 1957) - a professor of physiology at Lady Hardinge Medical College who was also the first woman board member in the Senate of Punjab University - a first for a woman in any university in India. Educated at Cambridge and Dublin University she worked in India from 1915 to 1922 and then returned to England. She wrote several bits on the methods of teaching nature study, and seems to have been very particular about these ideas. From a small fragment, it would appear that she emphasized the use of local and easily available plants as teaching aids and she deplored the use of the word "weed". Her sole book on birds was first published in 1923 as <i>Indian Bird Life</i> and then revised in 1926 as <i>Bird Study in India</i>. The second edition includes very neat black-and-white illustrations by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kay_Nixon" target="_blank">Kay Nixon</a>, a very talented artist who illustrated some Enid Blyton books and apparently designed posters for the Indian Railways.<br />
<br />
A rather sparse Wikipedia entry has been created at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.R.N._Holmer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.R.N._Holmer</a> - more information is welcome!<br />
<br />
A scanned version of her bird book can now be found on the Internet Archive - <a href="https://archive.org/details/Holmer">https://archive.org/details/Holmer</a> Holmer came from a Christian Sunday School approach to natural history which shows up in places in the book. Her book includes many literary references, several especially to R.L.S. (R.L.Stevenson). In another part of the series we will look at more "evangelical" bird books.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9XoyM9FTsTscCgi8GTi62FqeK12NPpRP2I2qIP92o1rSESGYUzVODB9Y3yDCfUbXPB5M1_riMPTtC6VVotp5IgRbYOgM219tY5zoT0YWxATFCdqGLlX8CEUclUl-VMCoO39O4NbRiO9U/s1600/Holmer.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1065" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9XoyM9FTsTscCgi8GTi62FqeK12NPpRP2I2qIP92o1rSESGYUzVODB9Y3yDCfUbXPB5M1_riMPTtC6VVotp5IgRbYOgM219tY5zoT0YWxATFCdqGLlX8CEUclUl-VMCoO39O4NbRiO9U/s640/Holmer.jpg" width="424" /> </a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stephenson_(zoologist)" target="_blank">John Stephenson</a>, the writer of the preface, was a zoologist and a specialist on the oligochaetes. He wrote the Fauna of British India volume on the oligochaetes and was the series editor for the Fauna of British India from 1927 following the death of the editor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Shipley" target="_blank">A.E. Shipley</a>. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Shyamal L.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14523054793854154400noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3126865061920461436.post-46872806050196032662019-08-04T05:24:00.004+05:302024-01-28T19:52:28.100+05:30On a germ trail<span class="firstchar">H</span>idden away in the little Himalayan town of Mukteshwar is a fascinating bit of science history. Cattle and livestock really mattered a lot in the pre-engine past, especially for transport and power, on farms and in cities but also and especially for people in power. Hyder Ali and Tipu were famed and feared for their ability to move their guns rapidly, most famously, making use of bullocks, of the <a href="https://archive.org/details/MysoreCattle/page/n39" target="_blank">Amrut Mahal and Hallikar</a> breeds. The subsequent British conquerors saw the value and maintained large numbers of them, at the Commissariat farm in Hunsur for instance.<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/Commissariat_farm_Hunsur_1889.jpg/1280px-Commissariat_farm_Hunsur_1889.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="800" height="428" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/Commissariat_farm_Hunsur_1889.jpg/1280px-Commissariat_farm_Hunsur_1889.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Commissariat Farm, Hunsur<br />
Photo by Wiele & Klein, from: <i>The Queen's Empire. A pictorial and descriptive record</i>. Volume 2. <br />
Cassell and Co. London (1899). [p. 261]<br />
The original photo caption given below, while being racy, was most definitely inaccurate, <br />
these were not maintained for beef : <br />
<br />
BEEF FOR THE BRITISH ARMY.<br />
<i>It is said that the Turkish soldier will live and fight upon a handful of dates and a cup of water, the Greek upon a few olives and a pound of bread—an excellent thing for the commissariats of the two armies concerned, no doubt! But though Turk and Greek will be satisfied with this Spartan fare, the British soldier will not—not if he can help it, that is to say. Sometimes he cannot help it, and then it is only just to him to admit that he bears himself at a pinch as a soldier should, and is satisfied with what he can get. But what the British soldier wants is beef, and plenty of it : and he is a wise and provident commander who will contrive that his men shall get what they want. Here we see that the Indian Government has realised this truth. The picture represents the great Commissariat Farm at Hunsur in Mysore, where the shapely long-horned bullocks are kept for the use of the army.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM1YHNV02y737wnQsfL9Y9mOvUKYYd73g0VrN_chgHYhgx8-bWQ1Kusz0eNHO24BmLlaMX1lhp2JXILS3Yc2ouNHZOKyFsOyNjPT9WChEmW-cGtO4aZ19uvGVJ7voqB7b0DiWdrALzUFY/s1600/cattle+plague.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1016" data-original-width="627" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM1YHNV02y737wnQsfL9Y9mOvUKYYd73g0VrN_chgHYhgx8-bWQ1Kusz0eNHO24BmLlaMX1lhp2JXILS3Yc2ouNHZOKyFsOyNjPT9WChEmW-cGtO4aZ19uvGVJ7voqB7b0DiWdrALzUFY/s320/cattle+plague.jpg" width="197" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://archive.org/details/b24749254/page/n6" target="_blank">Report </a>of the cattle plague commission <br />
led by J.H.B. Hallen (1871)</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Imagine the situation when cattle die off in their millions - the estimated deaths of cows and buffaloes in 1870 was 1 million. Around 1871, it rang alarm bells high enough to have a committee examining the situation. Britain had had a major "cattle plague" outbreak in 1865 and so the matter was not unknown to the public. The generic term for the mass deaths was "murrain", a rather old-fashioned word that refers to an epidemic disease in sheep and cattle derived from the French word <i>morine</i>, or "pestilence," with roots in Latin <i>mori </i>"to die." A commission headed by Staff Veterinary Surgeon J.H.B. Hallen went across what would best be called the "cow belt" of India and noted among other things that the cattle in the hills were doing better and that rivers helped isolate the disease. Remarkably there were two little-known Indians members - Mirza Mahomed Ali Jan (a deputy collector) and Hem Chunder Kerr (a magistrate and collector). The report includes 6 maps with spots where the outbreaks occurred in each year from 1860 to 1866 and the spatial approach to epidemiology is dominant. This is perhaps unsurprising given that the work of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Snow" target="_blank">John Snow</a> would have been fresh in medical minds. One point in the report that caught my eye was "<i>Increasing
civilization, which means in India clearing of jungle, making of roads,
extended agriculture, more communication with other parts, buying and
selling, &c, provides greater facilities for the spread of
contagious diseases of stock.</i>" The committee identified the largest number of deaths to be caused by rinderpest. Rinderpest has a very long history and the its attacks in Europe are quite well documented. There had been <a href="https://archive.org/details/b21697826/page/n8" target="_blank">two veterinary congresses</a> in Europe that looked at rinderpest. One of the early researchers was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Burdon-Sanderson" target="_blank">John Burdon Sanderson</a> (a maternal grand-uncle of J.B.S. Haldane) who noted that the blood of infected cattle was capable of infecting others even before the source individual showed any symptoms of the disease. He also examined the relationship to smallpox and cowpox through cross-vaccination and examination for resistance. C.A. Spinage in his brilliant book (but with a European focus) on <i>The Cattle Plague - A History </i>(2003) notes that rinderpest belongs to the Paramyxoviruses, a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morbillivirus" target="_blank">morbillivirus </a>which probably existed in Pleistocene Bovids and perhaps the first relative that jumped to humans was measles, and was associated with the domestication of cattle. The English believed that the origin of rinderpest lay in Russia. The Russians believed it came from the Mongols.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Runderpest_in_Nederland_18e_eeuw.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="503" data-original-width="800" height="402" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Runderpest_in_Nederland_18e_eeuw.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gods slaandehand over Nederland, door de pest-siekte onder het rund vee<br />
[<span class="tlid-translation translation" lang="en"><span title="">God's lashing hand over the Netherlands, due to the plague disease among cattle]<br />Woodcut by Jan Smits (1745) - cattle epidemics evoked theological explanations</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The British government made a grant of £5,000 in 1865 for research into rinderpest which was apparently the biggest ever investment in medical research upto that point of time. This was also a period when there was epidemic cholera epidemic, mainly affecting the working class, and it was noted that hardly any money was spent on it. (Spinage:328) The result of the rewards was that a very wide variety of cures were proffered and Spinage provides an amusing overview. One cure claim came from a Mr. M. Worms of Ceylon and involved garlic, onion, and asafoetida. Worms was somehow related to Baron Rothschild and the cure was apparently tested on some of Rothschild's cattle with some surprising recoveries. Inoculation as in small pox treatments were tried by many and they often resulted in infection and death of the animals.<br />
<br />
As for the India scene, it appears that the British government did not do much based on the Hallen committee report. There were attempts to regulate the movement of cattle but it seems that the idea that it could be prevented through inoculation or vaccination had to wait. In the 1865 outbreak in Britain, one of the control measures was the killing and destruction of infected cattle at the point of import. This finally brought an end to outbreaks in 1867. Several physicians in India tried experiments in inoculation. In India natural immunity was noted and animals that overcame the disease were valued by their owners. In India natural immunity was noted and animals that overcame the disease were valued by their owners. In 1890 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Koch" target="_blank">Robert Koch</a> was called into service in the Cape region on the suggestion of Dr <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Hendricus_Meiring_Beck" target="_blank">J. Beck</a>. In 1897 Koch announced that bile from infected animals could induce resistance on inoculation. Koch was then sent on to India to examine the plague leaving behind a William Kolle to continue experiments in a disused mine building at Kimberley belonging to the De Beers. Around the same time experiments were conducted by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Watkins-Pitchford" target="_blank">Herbert Watkins-Pitchford</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Theiler" target="_blank">Arnold Theiler</a> who found that serum from cattle that recovered worked as an effective inoculation. They however failed to publish and received little credit. Koch, a German, beating the English researchers was a cause of hurt pride.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/Brown_institution_Wandsworth.jpg/1280px-Brown_institution_Wandsworth.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="587" data-original-width="800" height="234" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/Brown_institution_Wandsworth.jpg/1280px-Brown_institution_Wandsworth.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Brown Institution was destroyed in 1944 <br />
by German bombing</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Interesting to see how much national pride was involved in all this. The French had established an Imperial Bacteriological Institute at Constantinople with Louis Pasteur as their leading light. This was mostly headed by Pasteur Institute Alumni. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Nicolle" target="_blank">Maurice Nicolle</a> and Adil-Bey were involved in rinderpest research. They demonstrated that the causal agent was small enough to pass through bacterial filters. In India, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Lingard" target="_blank">Alfred Lingard</a> was chosen in 1890 to examine the problems of livestock diseases and to find solutions. Lingard had gained his research experience at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Animal_Sanatory_Institution" target="_blank">Brown Animal Sanatory Institution</a> - whose workers included John Burdon Sanderson. About six years earlier, Robert Koch, a German, had caused more embarrassment to the British establishment by identifying the cholera causing bacteria in Calcutta. Koch had however not demonstrated that his bacteria isolate could cause disease in uninfected animals - thereby failing one of the required tests for causality that now goes by the name of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koch%27s_postulates" target="_blank">Koch's postulates</a>. There were several critiques by British researchers who had been working for a while on cholera in India - these included<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Douglas_Cunningham" target="_blank"> David Douglas Cunningham</a> (who was also a keen naturalist and wrote a couple of general natural history books as well) and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Richards_Lewis" target="_blank">T.R. Lewis</a> (who had spent some time with German researchers). The British government (the bureaucrats were especially worried about quarantine measures for cholera and had a preference for old-fashioned <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miasma_theory" target="_blank">miasma theories </a>of disease) felt the need for a committee to examine the conflict between the English and German claims - and they presumably chose someone with a knowledge of German for it - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emanuel_Edward_Klein" target="_blank">Emanuel Edward Klein</a> assisted by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heneage_Gibbes" target="_blank">Heneage Gibbes</a>. Klein was also from the Brown Animal Sanatory Institution and had worked with Burdon Sanderson. Now Klein, the Brown Institution, Burdon Sanderson and many of the British physiologists had come under the attack of the anti-vivisection movement. During the court proceedings that examined claims of cruelty to animals by the anti-vivisectionists, Klein, an east European (of Jewish descent) with his poor knowledge of English had made rather shocking statements that served as fodder for some science fiction written in that period with evil characters bearing a close resemblance to Klein! Even Lingard had been accused of cruelty, feeding chickens with the lungs of tuberculosis patients, to examine if the disease could be transmitted. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Hanbury_Hankin" target="_blank">E.H. Hankin</a>, the man behind the Ganges bacteriophages had also been associated with the vivisection-researchers and the British Indian press had even called him a vivisector who had escaped to India.<br />
<br />
Lingard initially worked in Pune but he found the climate unsatisfactory for working on anti-rinderpest sera. In 1893 he moved the laboratory in the then remote mountain town of Mukteshwar (or Muktesar as the British records have it) and his first lab burnt down in a fire. In 1897 Lingard invited Koch and others to visit and Koch's bile method was demonstrated. The institution, then given the grand name of Imperial Bacteriological Laboratory was rebuilt and it continues to exist as a unit of the Indian Veterinary Research Institute. Lingard was able to produce rinderpest serum in this facility - producing 468,853 doses between 1900 and 1905 and the mortality of inoculated cattle was as low as 0.43%. The institute grew to produce 1,388,560 doses by 1914-15. Remarkably, several countries joined hands in 1921 to attack rinderpest and other livestock diseases and it is claimed that rinderpest is now the second virus (after smallpox) to have been eradicated. The Muktesar institution and its surroundings were also greatly modified with dense plantations of deodar and other conifers. Today this quiet little village centered around a temple to Shiva is visited by waves of tourists and all along the route one can see the horrifying effects of land being converted for housing and apartments. <br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="570" data-original-width="800" height="456" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/IBL_Muktesar.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Imperial Bacteriological Laboratory c. 1912 (rebuilt after the fire)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKLl_yYr6U8qq7HeOFUdlPkI9aKHzvwOzKLm6jNlwAC3AASL8Hu-tXCigS8bPW4HeA7E2f6ZArcAXFxcpwXbxE2s4nIHDUBl-oqhYVdUAPAKatMI3DHjdkALp5A2sOdCmCkwDtoRqtyCY/s1600/IVRI_Mukteshwar.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKLl_yYr6U8qq7HeOFUdlPkI9aKHzvwOzKLm6jNlwAC3AASL8Hu-tXCigS8bPW4HeA7E2f6ZArcAXFxcpwXbxE2s4nIHDUBl-oqhYVdUAPAKatMI3DHjdkALp5A2sOdCmCkwDtoRqtyCY/s640/IVRI_Mukteshwar.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In 2019, the commemorative column can be seen.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d1/IBL_Mukteshwar_2.jpg/1280px-IBL_Mukteshwar_2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d1/IBL_Mukteshwar_2.jpg/1280px-IBL_Mukteshwar_2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Upper corridor</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/71/Manlove_autoclave_3.jpg/1280px-Manlove_autoclave_3.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/71/Manlove_autoclave_3.jpg/1280px-Manlove_autoclave_3.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A large autoclave made by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manlove,_Alliott_%26_Co._Ltd." target="_blank">Manlove & Alliott, Nottingham. </a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7b/IBL_Mukteshwar.jpg/1280px-IBL_Mukteshwar.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="524" data-original-width="800" height="418" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7b/IBL_Mukteshwar.jpg/1280px-IBL_Mukteshwar.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stone marker</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/24/IBL_Mukteshwar_3.jpg/512px-IBL_Mukteshwar_3.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="400" height="640" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/24/IBL_Mukteshwar_3.jpg/512px-IBL_Mukteshwar_3.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A cold storage room built into the hillside</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcjzjSPNqLH52fz81q5ymjxH51OxdwlcAQtX8zHZv-PZUDNATofg5pqzXT5gr3y7mFDbeYbiNgokqOF366FgCaTwEfrUz8iAV622IFGdbWs4WukrLDYxfso7z5bEHao43CxKES6M4N0x8/s1600/Koch+Lingard+1897.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="621" data-original-width="798" height="497" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcjzjSPNqLH52fz81q5ymjxH51OxdwlcAQtX8zHZv-PZUDNATofg5pqzXT5gr3y7mFDbeYbiNgokqOF366FgCaTwEfrUz8iAV622IFGdbWs4WukrLDYxfso7z5bEHao43CxKES6M4N0x8/s640/Koch+Lingard+1897.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Koch in 1897 at Muktesar<br />
Seated: Lingard, Koch, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Friedrich_Johannes_Pfeiffer" target="_blank">Pfeiffer</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Theodor_August_Gaffky" target="_blank">Gaffky</a></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/IBL_Muktesar_veg.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="539" data-original-width="800" height="430" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/IBL_Muktesar_veg.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The habitat c. 1910. One of the parasitologists, a Dr Bhalerao, <br />
described parasites from king cobras shot in the area.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Chauli_ki_Jali_2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Chauli_ki_Jali_2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The crags behind the Mukteshwar institute, Chauli-ki-Jhali, a hole in a jutting sheet of rock (behind and not visible)<br />
is a local tourist attraction. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Here then are portraits of three scientists who were tainted in the vivisection debate in Britain, but who were able to work in India without much trouble.</div>
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/E_H_Hankin.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="468" data-original-width="366" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/E_H_Hankin.jpg" width="250" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">E.H. Hankin</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/44/Alfred_Lingard.jpg/343px-Alfred_Lingard.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="343" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/44/Alfred_Lingard.jpg/343px-Alfred_Lingard.jpg" width="228" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alfred Lingard</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/E_Klein.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="520" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/E_Klein.jpg" width="207" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Emanuel Edward Klein</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
The cattle plague period coincides nicely with some of the largest reported numbers of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_adjutant" target="_blank">Greater Adjutant storks</a> and perhaps also a period when vultures prospered, feeding on the dead cattle. We have <a href="https://muscicapa.blogspot.com/2010/12/great-observers-ernest-hanbury-hankin.html" target="_blank">already seen</a> that Hankin was quite interested in vultures. Cunningham notes the <a href="https://archive.org/details/someindianfriend00cunnrich/page/228" target="_blank">decline</a> in adjutants in his <a class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/someindianfriend00cunnrich" rel="nofollow">Some Indian Friends and Acquaintances</a> (1903). The anti-vivisection movement, like other minority British movements such as the vegetarian movement, found friends among many educated Indians, and we know of the participation of such people as Dr <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pranjivan_Mehta" target="_blank">Pranjivan Mehta</a> in it thanks to the work of the late Dr. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._R._Mehrotra" target="_blank">S. R. Mehrotra</a>. There was also an anti-vaccination movement, and we know it caused (and continues to cause) enough conflict in the case of humans but there appears to be little literature related to opposition to their use on livestock in India.<br />
<br />
<b>Further reading</b><br />
<ul>
<li>All the linked Wikipedia entries.</li>
<li><a href="https://queensanimaldefence.org/2015/02/18/the-history-of-the-anti-vivisection-movement/" target="_blank">A history of the anti-vivisection movement</a> - the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Dog_affair" target="_blank">Brown Dog Riots </a></li>
<li>Besant, Annie (1882) <a href="https://archive.org/details/vivisection00besagoog" target="_blank">Vivisection</a>. </li>
<li>Blevins, S. M., & Bronze, M. S. (2010). <i>Robert Koch and the “golden age” of bacteriology. International Journal of Infectious Diseases, 14(9), e744–e751.</i> doi:<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2009.12.003" target="_blank">10.1016/j.ijid.2009.12.003</a></li>
<li>Chakrabarti, Pratik (2001). Beasts of Burden: Animals and Laboratory Research in Colonial India. History of Science 48 (2):125-151. doi:<a class="outLink" href="https://philpapers.org/go.pl?id=CHABOB-2&proxyId=&u=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1177%2F007327531004800201" rel="nofollow">10.1177/007327531004800201</a></li>
<li>Cunningham, D.D. (1907). <a href="https://archive.org/details/plaguesandpleas00cunngoog" target="_blank">Plagues and Pleasures of Life in Bengal</a>.</li>
<li>Holmes, J.D.E. (1913) <a href="https://archive.org/details/b2499067x" target="_blank">A description of the Imperial Bacteriological Laboratory, Muktesar : its work and products. </a>Calcutta: Government Press.</li>
<li>Plowright, W. (1968). <i>Rinderpest Virus. Virology Monographs, 25–110.</i> doi:<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-39771-8_2" target="_blank">10.1007/978-3-662-39771-8_2</a></li>
<li>Richards, S. (1986). <i>Drawing the life-blood of physiology: Vivisection and the Physiologists’ dilemma, 1870–1900. Annals of Science, 43(1), 27–56.</i> doi:<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00033798600200111" target="_blank">10.1080/00033798600200111</a> </li>
<li>Spinage, C.A. (2003). Cattle Plague. A History. New York: Springer. </li>
</ul>
Thanks are due to Dr Muthuchelvan and his colleague for an impromptu guided tour of IVRI, Mukteshwar.<br />
<ul>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b>Postscripts:</b><br />
The Imperial Bacteriologist - Alfred Lingard in this case in 1906 - was apparently made "Conservator" for the "Muktesar Reserve Forest" and the 10 members of the "Muktesar Shikar Club" were given exemption from fees to shoot carnivores on their land in 1928. See National Archives of India <a href="https://www.abhilekh-patal.in/jspui/handle/123456789/2741415" target="_blank">document</a>.<br />
Klein, Gibbes and D.D. Cunningham were also joined by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Vandyke_Carter" target="_blank">H.V. Carter</a> (who contributed illustrations to Gray's Anatomy - <a href="https://rcsedlibraryandarchive.wordpress.com/2016/08/03/jealousy-praps-henry-gray-henry-vandyke-carter-and-grays-anatomy/" target="_blank">more here</a>).</div><div style="text-align: left;">28-1-2024: The Hebbal Serum Institute (another institution built during <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Coleman" target="_blank">Leslie Coleman's</a> tenure) was established in Bangalore around 1927 and produced <a href="https://archive.org/details/MysoreAgriculture/page/n191/mode/1up" target="_blank">two million doses </a>of serum from 1927 to 1939. <br /></div>
</div>
Shyamal L.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14523054793854154400noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3126865061920461436.post-78772590950668958452019-04-29T10:23:00.000+05:302019-05-17T12:07:31.634+05:30Lost to development - Coromandel critters<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="firstchar">I</span> recently visited Puducherry (or Pondicherry), an area I had never been to. I chose to go in summer, an unpopular time for tourism, given the heat. A reason was to speculate and imagine what the place might have looked like in the past in the light of some enigmatic species known from the region. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Apteroessa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="397" height="400" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Apteroessa.jpg" width="197" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apteroessa" target="_blank"><i>Apteroessa grossa</i></a> (Fabricius, 1781)<br />
Lost to ignorance and <br />
probably driven to extinction <br />
by non-violent means</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
And the reason for that is an enigmatic little beetle that has not been seen for more than 200 years. Given that there is a major ecology school, numerous naturalists, and the French Institute, one would imagine that whatever I had to learn was well-known. On a visit to the Natural History Museum in London in 2014, I had
happened to meet a brilliant curator of beetles and in the course of
casual conversation he mentioned how he had been interviewed for his
job. He had been asked what he would do if there was a fire in the museum and
he had declared that he would grab one of the oldest beetle specimens
in the collection, a species of which only three specimens exist in the
entire world, a species that has never been seen again where it had
been collected - somewhere on the Coromandel Coast. This large (more than an inch long)
flightless tiger beetle, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apteroessa" target="_blank">Apteroessa grossa</a></i>,
had been collected by the Danish colonialists, from the region of
Tranquebar (Tharangambadi) and had been described and given a binomial
name by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Christian_Fabricius" target="_blank">Johan Christian Fabricius</a>
in 1781. Nobody quite knows exactly where the specimens came from, that
is, there is no information on the habitat.<br />
<br />
Here is what Fabio Cassola (died 2016) <a href="https://archive.org/details/insects_spider/page/n98" target="_blank">wrote </a>on this beetle:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"<i>... the enigmatic nocturnal Apteroessa grossa, described long ago by Fabricius (1781) from the Coromandel coast (Tranquebar), present-day Tamil Nadu state. A second locality (Mayanayakanur, Ammayanayakanur Madura) is also known in the entomological literature (Wiesner 1992). The species was isolated, in modern taxonomy, because of its aberrant characters, in a special subtribe of its own (Apteroessina) (Rivalier 1971). My late friend and colleague Karl Werner, who visited India and the type locality several times, tried repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, to collect it. He related (pers. comm.) that the environment is probably much changed, that the area is presently overcrowded and that he feared that the species could well have disappeared in the wild. </i>"</blockquote>
<br />
Having very little
knowledge of the Coromandel region, my interest was in understanding what kinds of habitats might have existed in Pondicherry and the Coromandel region that could have been greatly altered. <br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZkAhuip6tbuAvx6Qh1GoXv5DpqJ0w_JBsLKnlf-Oi2wAHmSEkI-Re9Xi-zx7hfP2J039I_hyWHqBYx4iTT5feQIrA5tlJ5_TCT4S8X_jMSfu5340XbIPF2Uc5MA_jAQINVilZdO6jFV8/s1600/pondy.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="646" data-original-width="1130" height="363" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZkAhuip6tbuAvx6Qh1GoXv5DpqJ0w_JBsLKnlf-Oi2wAHmSEkI-Re9Xi-zx7hfP2J039I_hyWHqBYx4iTT5feQIrA5tlJ5_TCT4S8X_jMSfu5340XbIPF2Uc5MA_jAQINVilZdO6jFV8/s640/pondy.gif" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A 1919 map overlaid on Google Earth to examine change. The original map can be found on Wikimedia Commons, click <a href="https://warper.wmflabs.org/maps/2633#Preview_tab" target="_blank">here</a> for an interactive overlay or a <a href="https://warper.wmflabs.org/maps/2633#" target="_blank">downloadable kml file</a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It is clear that development and the pressure on land has gone up enormously. Many of the alterations of the land are thanks to engineered solutions. One of the first victims, it would seem are small water bodies. These are filled in and pipes drawn from long distances from larger waterbodies, which are often deepened and the streams and canals are straightened out and made to flow in concrete channels. I found that Rue Petit Canal in Pondicherry was once an actual unlined stream course.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b0/Plan_Fort_Louis.jpg/1280px-Plan_Fort_Louis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="491" data-original-width="800" height="392" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b0/Plan_Fort_Louis.jpg/1280px-Plan_Fort_Louis.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The old canal in 1716. Also note the sand spits. Image can be found <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plan_Fort_Louis.jpg" target="_blank">here</a> and the overlay can be explored <a href="https://warper.wmflabs.org/maps/2629#Preview_tab" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
This shows Fort St. Louis which was destroyed by the English in 1761.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/Rue_Petit_Canal.jpg/1280px-Rue_Petit_Canal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="480" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/Rue_Petit_Canal.jpg/1280px-Rue_Petit_Canal.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The canal as modified by engineers. 2019</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I never quite managed to explore the actual Tranquebar region but it would seem that this was an extensive delta zone with a lot of sand deposits. Perhaps <i>Apteroessa </i>lived on sandy dunes, as some flightless African <i>Dromica </i>species live. Sandy beaches have been destroyed along the coast by engineers or contractors with what can only be called "commonplace thinking" - which could be defined as knowledge claims that could be easily (and incorrectly) explained to the masses and the people in power - trying to explain sea dynamics and geology is perhaps considered too hard - for some contrast <a href="https://coast.noaa.gov/data/estuaries/pdf/water-going-up-water-going-down-shifting-sands.pdf" target="_blank">see how this is taught</a> in California. The typical engineering solution is to produce hard boundaries with rocks or concrete and these are well known to cause sand deposition to shift.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f2/Pondicherry_regional_map.jpg/1280px-Pondicherry_regional_map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="352" data-original-width="800" height="280" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f2/Pondicherry_regional_map.jpg/1280px-Pondicherry_regional_map.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coromandel region with Tranquebar c. 1758 (the vegetation marked is not characterized)<br />
Image can be found <a href="https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b53029786k" target="_blank">here </a>/ <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pondicherry_regional_map.jpg" target="_blank">here </a>and the overlay can be found <a href="https://warper.wmflabs.org/maps/2628#Preview_tab" target="_blank">here</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The Coromandel zone is remarkable perhaps for the number of species that have gone quietly extinct or out of common knowledge. There is a near endangered Pondicherry shark (<i>Carcharhinus hemiodon</i>), an enigmatic species of shrew that has <i>never actually been seen</i> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnerat's_shrew" target="_blank">Sonnerat's shrew</a> - and there is a thorny Acacia-like plant, <a href="https://biotaxa.org/Phytotaxa/article/view/phytotaxa.397.1.11/0" target="_blank"><i>Vachellia bolei</i></a>, from further south that was described in 1985, that has been declared extinct recently. And these are just a few species that we know about.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c4/Reconstruction-of-Crocidura-sonnerati-Tatiana-Petrova-2019.jpg/1024px-Reconstruction-of-Crocidura-sonnerati-Tatiana-Petrova-2019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="548" data-original-width="800" height="273" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c4/Reconstruction-of-Crocidura-sonnerati-Tatiana-Petrova-2019.jpg/1024px-Reconstruction-of-Crocidura-sonnerati-Tatiana-Petrova-2019.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnerat's_shrew" target="_blank">Sonnerat's shrew</a> - original reconstruction courtesy of Tatiana Petrova (Creative Commons/<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reconstruction-of-Crocidura-sonnerati-Tatiana-Petrova-2019.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Coming back to our tiger beetle, there is a suggestion that flightlessness is associated with stable habitats, where there is no need for dispersing out of. What could these be, mangroves, coastal sands? I did not manage to examine the Pichavaram mangroves, perhaps these need to be carefully watched. One wonders if perhaps the beetles lived further inland of Tranquebar amid the galleries of the boulder strewn hills in that area. A second locality has been suggested from near Sirumalai which is not entirely certain but that area has some patches under protection, so who knows, they may still exist somewhere! Perhaps interested people living in this zone should keep an eye.<br />
<br />
<b>Further reading</b><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Kamoun, Sophien; Hogenhout, Saskia A. (1996). "Flightlessness and Rapid Terrestrial Locomotion in Tiger Beetles of the Cicindela L. Subgenus Rivacindela van Nidek from Saline Habitats of Australia (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae)". <i>The Coleopterists Bulletin</i>. <b>50 </b>(3): 221–230. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSTOR">JSTOR</a> <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4009161">4009161</a>. </li>
<li><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-beaches-lose-their-sand-and-then-suddenly-reappear-77503" target="_blank">Why beaches lose their sand – and then suddenly reappear</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.beachapedia.org/Shoreline_Structures" target="_blank">"Beachapedia" - a must read for engineers and contractors</a> </li>
</ul>
<br /></div>
Shyamal L.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14523054793854154400noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3126865061920461436.post-72259819574656745532019-03-16T15:09:00.012+05:302022-12-14T14:34:29.768+05:30From the Biligiris to the Bahamas<div style="text-align: justify;">
ESSENTIAL YOU ACCOMPANY FIRST SCIENTIFIC VISIT SINCE 1916 TO FLAMINGO COLONY MARCH FIFTEEN STOP PARTY CONSISTS ARTHUR VERNAY PRESIDENT BAHAMAS FLAMINGO PROTECTION SOCIETY COMMA ROBERT MURPHY OF AMERICAN NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM AND SELF STOP FAIL NOT BRYCE</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<span class="firstchar">T</span>he text of a telegram in 1956 sent by OSS operative <a href="https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKbryceI.htm" target="_blank">Ivar Felix Bryce</a> to his friend Ian Fleming. Fleming joined <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Stannard_Vernay" target="_blank">Arthur Vernay</a> to the remote island of Inagua where the silence of the vast sea would inspire Crab Key, the base of his villain <i>Dr No </i>and Fleming used Bryce's middle-name Felix for his CIA operative. Photographs of the group by the ornithologist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cushman_Murphy" target="_blank">Robert Cushman Murphy</a> survive in archives. James Bond, of course, was named after the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bond_(ornithologist)" target="_blank">ornithologist </a>who wrote the <i>Birds of the West Indies</i>.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJzFyuS-W-QTqwRT9ccoMwIr4kwTueIzcn1aSuu_EH9mjDYdZ6R7n1xFN2aHxTVzJoco8AShvemyGMIreCpib8-46lEBhMXwHooGm9z_vdlpZL6LaoIc3Zyy5GbAHRlm42HcHtaCWYT9I/s1600/ian+fleming.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="947" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJzFyuS-W-QTqwRT9ccoMwIr4kwTueIzcn1aSuu_EH9mjDYdZ6R7n1xFN2aHxTVzJoco8AShvemyGMIreCpib8-46lEBhMXwHooGm9z_vdlpZL6LaoIc3Zyy5GbAHRlm42HcHtaCWYT9I/s400/ian+fleming.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From Raymond Benson (2012). The James Bond Bedside Companion. Crossroad Press. [ Fair Use ]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Arthur Vernay had then retired to Nassau and was involved in flamingo conservation in the Bahamas in 1956. Surprisingly, he had never been interested in birds or wildlife until 1921. He had moved from England to New York, and starting as an elevator operator, began an antique store and rose to wealth and power - an unbelievable rags to riches story. His interest in the wild was, rather surprisingly, sparked off by a visit to the Biligirirangan Hills, to the estate of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Camroux_Morris" target="_blank">R.C. Morris</a> in 1921.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f6/Vernay-Faunthorpe_1923.jpg/1024px-Vernay-Faunthorpe_1923.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="800" height="268" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f6/Vernay-Faunthorpe_1923.jpg/1024px-Vernay-Faunthorpe_1923.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vernay with J.C. Faunthorpe of UP (the United Provinces) in 1923</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Morris, in an obituary, notes that Vernay had never seen wild animals in their habitat before and that he left very impressed. Impressed enough to begin a series of expeditions the next year into India which was followed by more. It appears that Vernay got in touch with Morris via <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Faunthorpe" target="_blank">J.C. Faunthorpe</a>, a BNHS member (like Morris) and big-game hunter who worked briefly with the British mission in the United States. When Vernay made his first trip to India with Faunthorpe, he visited the Biligirirangans with Morris as host. They shot elephants - later exhibited in the Vernay-Faunthorpe Hall of the AMNH.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrnTBRHMScqj1fzGvO_A_1-ReCI-0jrqsze-SB0TUZ24lhii1mr-vWAeWUwhv4aaVetLjBC79iFEzsBDtctFibovgWkSgbuqCbbzqTzkQGe5pRhgnwXhwqYd3IrI1l3xjx193-rZeH6n8/s1600/Vernay+Faunthorpe.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1405" data-original-width="1600" height="562" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrnTBRHMScqj1fzGvO_A_1-ReCI-0jrqsze-SB0TUZ24lhii1mr-vWAeWUwhv4aaVetLjBC79iFEzsBDtctFibovgWkSgbuqCbbzqTzkQGe5pRhgnwXhwqYd3IrI1l3xjx193-rZeH6n8/s640/Vernay+Faunthorpe.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl-YicrgFt0g7U2QDEv32GHwH1wH2CBEIA7ZqMjaT5I05ISxApk72PTo2QzZrvfqGW623CuXApHi9oYzshVLlCC2yA4RFXwJ6KnuYuAJIp2od0xBh1ru0E9n_BNkWxcaibS8yyt673Fq4/s1600/AMNH+elephant.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="865" data-original-width="1154" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl-YicrgFt0g7U2QDEv32GHwH1wH2CBEIA7ZqMjaT5I05ISxApk72PTo2QzZrvfqGW623CuXApHi9oYzshVLlCC2yA4RFXwJ6KnuYuAJIp2od0xBh1ru0E9n_BNkWxcaibS8yyt673Fq4/s640/AMNH+elephant.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Taxidermic mount in the Vernay-Faunthorpe Hall at the AMNH<br />
Jonas, Louis. 1930. The mounting of an elephant group. Proceedings of the American Association of Museums, New Series, no. 11, Washington, DC. <br />
A (not recommended for the sensitive) video showing the preparation of it can be <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2011/02/02/133377909/taxidermy" target="_blank">found here </a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Vernay would later fund in entirety, a survey of the Eastern Ghats. In those days a survey meant making collections of plants, and animals along the way, shooting, skinning, bottling, and otherwise preserving specimens that would then be examined by experts (often even decades later). The team that went into the field consisted of trained collectors armed with guns, and the ability to prepare specimens with labels. In the Eastern Ghats, the collectors were N.A. Baptista (a <a href="https://archive.org/details/journalofbombayn2834bomb/page/677" target="_blank">Goan skinner</a> in the BNHS) and V.S. LaPersonne (15 July 1897 - ?, an assistant curator at the BNHS) about whom little is known.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd7N1prBGeHSBUQ0XNlAzxtKJiGR8kBX7GbqJ-NTLEwoii-2cNlXfTZb0za5x9p2HHtB17rjmn-ykSDTqrJElq1LAHtif0UWfUrxUFustn5hyjbm-g4Kcc2YR0v8USSjdT8W-8gkZWDaU/s1600/AMNH+McCann.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="655" data-original-width="776" height="539" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd7N1prBGeHSBUQ0XNlAzxtKJiGR8kBX7GbqJ-NTLEwoii-2cNlXfTZb0za5x9p2HHtB17rjmn-ykSDTqrJElq1LAHtif0UWfUrxUFustn5hyjbm-g4Kcc2YR0v8USSjdT8W-8gkZWDaU/s640/AMNH+McCann.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Goan skinner in this is not N.A. Baptista but a certain Fernandez (right) <br />
with Charles McCann during the Vernay Hopwood Expedition<br />
<br />
R.C. Morris also accompanied the group - see<a href="https://archive.org/details/journalofbomb38341936bomb/page/n350" target="_blank"> BNHS note</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc2QGH9yQyDfQ72GWcG140YXTL32qysu80kVOkZKw32o6PeqcTkX3lq0tCZr3UXHsk14zFTuFKvEMuW9bY7prX8S1bbGVj03Rfcew1BqIInatVDmxlJnYJ2x-_RwxlSI4GtM4iNDbXlE0/s1102/Panchan.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1102" data-original-width="747" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc2QGH9yQyDfQ72GWcG140YXTL32qysu80kVOkZKw32o6PeqcTkX3lq0tCZr3UXHsk14zFTuFKvEMuW9bY7prX8S1bbGVj03Rfcew1BqIInatVDmxlJnYJ2x-_RwxlSI4GtM4iNDbXlE0/w271-h400/Panchan.jpg" width="271" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://archive.org/details/naturalhistory3016newy/page/84/mode/1up" target="_blank">Panchan</a>, Vernay's skinner, had come from the Terai, and is described as a Tharu<br />in the employ of J.C. Faunthorpe<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Vernay became a trustee at the American Museum of Natural History in 1935 and a Vice Patron of the Bombay Natural History Society in 1928. Through his travels, he sent specimens, mostly to the former but some to the latter too. Morris joined the Vernay-Hopwood Upper Chindwin Expedition of 1935. There are pictures of him in the archives of H.C. Raven. <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzjqS1wHd9Bbsge0ySwZ1RGYVcoYvcNNSkpcLbUdtnCDZUgINVQgbNtChyphenhyphenoblr4rv00iMM-9zIUK84xi9yROkmdMNptU39h7PiZjfcyzzkd1r0ARnwflSadpP0BGhOsLIt79t1uzkENwk/s1600/Rowley-Vernay-Morris.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="362" data-original-width="489" height="472" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzjqS1wHd9Bbsge0ySwZ1RGYVcoYvcNNSkpcLbUdtnCDZUgINVQgbNtChyphenhyphenoblr4rv00iMM-9zIUK84xi9yROkmdMNptU39h7PiZjfcyzzkd1r0ARnwflSadpP0BGhOsLIt79t1uzkENwk/s640/Rowley-Vernay-Morris.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Major Guy Rowley, Arthur S.<br />
Vernay, and Colonel Randolph C. Morris. “Singkaling Hkamti<br />
to Hahti, Mar. 1935.” Photograph by H. C. Raven. Image<br />
VHC-M16, American Museum of Natural History Library</td></tr>
</tbody></table> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Here is a view of Morris' home in the Biligiris, Attikan from 2019.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Attikan_estate5.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="480" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Attikan_estate5.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Attikan, the lawn was being worked. <br />The vast front yard was once used by the Maharaja of Mysore on a hunting visit.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">And a view from Honnematti rock beside the hill on which their estate stands.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Honnametti_view.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="311" data-original-width="800" height="248" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Honnametti_view.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View from Honnametti, the Honnametti kallu (rock) is at the left edge<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUCvAiEnFYwNdOnqstSFeg-PRFmP1Yu5xm2DMsy5snKUmUa-uoiZvvhV69qfc42Aiw1gHodydZvaueLOVxMeD2JnykIQFGVNo8Q9kXpqlaeKHcNBpx-V8KJoy9E2QO9iESMvrUaJIyYxw/s1600/amnh+vernay.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1440" data-original-width="1600" height="574" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUCvAiEnFYwNdOnqstSFeg-PRFmP1Yu5xm2DMsy5snKUmUa-uoiZvvhV69qfc42Aiw1gHodydZvaueLOVxMeD2JnykIQFGVNo8Q9kXpqlaeKHcNBpx-V8KJoy9E2QO9iESMvrUaJIyYxw/s640/amnh+vernay.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A diorama in the Vernay-Faunthorpe Hall of the American Museum of Natural History <br />probably inspired by a scene from the Biligirirangans.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Vernay went on several other expeditions, one with another wealthy explorer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._Suydam_Cutting" target="_blank">Charles Suydam Cutting</a>. The Vernay-Cutting expedition was aided by British intelligence officer and amateur botanist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Marshman_Bailey" target="_blank">F.M. Bailey</a>. In Africa, he was joined by another ornithologist who also worked as an OSS operative - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudyerd_Boulton" target="_blank">Rudyerd Boulton</a>. Cutting was apparently part of what was called "<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23169848" target="_blank">The Room</a>" an espionage ring organized by wealthy Americans including Roosevelt and Vincent Astor.
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2VGXq20JgkZjWFQjAHwjH7v7TvynxfFy-MiABmGG1sjwtRcVIzXt0lN9ot1CPm7vs05rmTGpJa3xgnZA_wD1wzZJawPTstNFvn5QUpulB_fbQ30Sv_JOtBCIprJExjRgJoYBWzNBqSGY/s1600/Vernay-Cutting+Shigatse.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="820" data-original-width="1095" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2VGXq20JgkZjWFQjAHwjH7v7TvynxfFy-MiABmGG1sjwtRcVIzXt0lN9ot1CPm7vs05rmTGpJa3xgnZA_wD1wzZJawPTstNFvn5QUpulB_fbQ30Sv_JOtBCIprJExjRgJoYBWzNBqSGY/s640/Vernay-Cutting+Shigatse.jpg" width="640" /> </a></td><td style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vernay, unknown Tibetan and Suydam Cutting in Tibet from Cutting's <i>The Fire Ox and Other Years</i> (1940)<br />
Another <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/resources/view/50198" target="_blank">photo in the Smithsonian Archives shows</a> them in Lhasa with a Lhasa Apso at their feet.<br />
Cutting would introduce Lhasa Apsos into the United States. He gifted dachshunds to the Dalai Lama in return.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
While all these images capture the age of expeditions and unknown frontiers, one wonders if modern field biologists sometimes, and in vain, try and relive the same. Worse still, are conservation projects, funded by wealthy corporates, utilized to post so-called experts into wilderness areas where the local people themselves are treated the way the so-called "natives" were treated in colonial times. Wildlife movies often dwell on the romance of travel - showing how the wildernesses were reached by helicopters, 4-wheel drives or by hacking their way through jungle while glossing over the fact that local people live right near those locations without much ado.<br />
<b><br /></b>
With government funding drying up in many science fields, will biologists go to the billionaires again?<br />
<br />
<b>Notes </b><br />
As usual the writing of this note is a byproduct of improving Wikipedia entries - in this case - for references and more details do look up<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Faunthorpe">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Faunthorpe</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Stannard_Vernay">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Stannard_Vernay</a></li></ul><p>PS Sept-2021: The new biography - <span><i>The Real James Bond </i>by Jim Wright is a great read<i>.<br /></i></span></p><ul>
</ul>
<br /></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLUknMX1dL7gtycNOgRo5LHKwnH5kh3ZJuHXOS3HVdyiKctL8TMmYvQs1aRBReh1ApMMwnzMoIsvdtAO_PRW12Xi2a7LTr1UeW3cQLEjtqxJF3dW0VrmpJ2GgGUfEt6IS8KF5UiY4mqK9-F_b0M2lthOoCRMR_fme2UATo1lKQwQV0Y1wcgSSV_cre/s2256/Arthur%20S%20Vernay%20ex%20libris.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2256" data-original-width="1432" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLUknMX1dL7gtycNOgRo5LHKwnH5kh3ZJuHXOS3HVdyiKctL8TMmYvQs1aRBReh1ApMMwnzMoIsvdtAO_PRW12Xi2a7LTr1UeW3cQLEjtqxJF3dW0VrmpJ2GgGUfEt6IS8KF5UiY4mqK9-F_b0M2lthOoCRMR_fme2UATo1lKQwQV0Y1wcgSSV_cre/w254-h400/Arthur%20S%20Vernay%20ex%20libris.jpg" width="254" /></a></div><br />Shyamal L.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14523054793854154400noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3126865061920461436.post-69585787317485586842019-03-14T15:30:00.020+05:302024-02-05T08:53:34.463+05:30A buggy history<blockquote class="tr_bq">
—I suppose you are an entomologist?—I said with a note of
interrogation.
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
—Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the
individual entitled to that name! A society may call itself an
Entomological Society, but the man who arrogates such a broad title as
that to himself, in the present state of science, is a pretender, sir, a
dilettante, an impostor! No man can be truly called an entomologist, sir;
the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.<i> </i></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<pre><i>The Poet at the Breakfast Table</i> (1872) by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. </pre>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<pre></pre>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitpuCU1dqwaHeBK868ehmRV12FWaaloa11qV4Pgrn7BDKC2JarcXpB1XRscW6e7CsqOmrO2qqL7bbHb2BjP5ZlZZ_CP6420SzetsyHO1iSGGMjHhl7AUZELk46UcZ9ums2p4bl8LE8Q-I/s1600/histoento.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="995" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitpuCU1dqwaHeBK868ehmRV12FWaaloa11qV4Pgrn7BDKC2JarcXpB1XRscW6e7CsqOmrO2qqL7bbHb2BjP5ZlZZ_CP6420SzetsyHO1iSGGMjHhl7AUZELk46UcZ9ums2p4bl8LE8Q-I/s320/histoento.jpg" width="199" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A collection of biographies<br />
with surprising gaps (ex. A.D. Imms)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span class="firstchar">T</span>he history of Indian interest in insects has been approached by many writers and there are several bits and pieces available in journals and various insights distributed across books. There are numerous ways of looking at how people viewed insects over time. One of these is a collection of biographies, some of which are uncited verbatim accounts from obituaries (and not even within quotation marks). This collation by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.R._Subba_Rao" target="_blank">B.R. Subba Rao</a> who also provides a few historical threads to tie together the biographies. Keeping Indian expectations in view, both Subba Rao and the agricultural entomologist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Afzal_Husain" target="_blank">M.A. Husain</a> play to the crowd in their early histories. Husain wrote in pre-Independence times where there was a need for Indians to assert themselves before their colonial masters. They begin with mentions of insects in ancient Indian texts and as can be expected there are mentions of honey, shellac, bees, ants, and a few nuisance insects. Husain takes the fact that the term Satpada षट्पद or six-legs existed in the 1st century <i>Amarakosa </i>to make the claim that Indians were far ahead of time because Latreille's Hexapoda, the supposed analogy, was proposed only in 1825. Such one-upmanship (or quests for past superiority in the face of current backwardness?) misses the fact that science is not just about terms but also about structures and one can only assume that these authors failed to find the development of such structures in the ancient texts that they examined. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedric_Dover" target="_blank">Cedric Dover</a>, with his part-Indian and British ancestry, interestingly, also notes the Sanskrit literature but declares that he is not competent enough to examine the subject carefully. The identification of species in old texts also leave one wondering about the accuracy of translations. For instance K.N. Dave translates a verse from the Atharva-veda and suggests an early date for knowledge on shellac. Dave's work has been re-examined by an entomologist, Mahdihassan. Another organism known in ancient texts as the <i>indragopa </i>(Indra's cowherd)<i> </i>supposedly appears after the rains. Some Sanskrit scholars have, remarkably enough, identified it, with a confidence that no coccidologist ever had, as <b>the </b>cochineal insect (the species <i>Dactylopius coccus</i> is South American!), while others identify it as a lac insect, a firefly(!) or as <i>Trombidium </i>(red velvet mites) - the last for matching blood red colour mentioned in a text attributed to Susrutha. To be fair, ambiguities in translation are not limited to those dealing with Indian writing. Dikairon (Δικαιρον), supposedly a highly-valued and potent poison from India was mentioned in the work <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indica_(Ctesias)" target="_blank">Indika by Ctesias</a> 398 - 397 BC. One writer said it was the droppings of a bird. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine_Ball" target="_blank">Valentine Ball</a> thought it was derived from a scarab beetle. Jeffrey Lockwood claimed that it came from the rove beetles <i>Paederus </i>sp. And finally a Spanish scholar states that all this was a gross misunderstanding and that Dikairon was not a poison, and - believe it or not - was a masticated mix of betel leaves, arecanut, and lime! </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">One gets a far more reliable idea of ancient knowledge and traditions from practitioners, forest dwellers, the traditional honey-harvesting tribes, and similar people that have been gathering materials such as shellac and beeswax. Unfortunately, many of these traditions and their practitioners are threatened by modern laws, economics, and cultural prejudice. These practitioners are being driven out of the forests where they live, and their knowledge was hardly ever captured in writing. The writers of the ancient Sanskrit texts were probably associated with temple-towns and other semi-urban clusters and it seems like the knowledge of forest dwellers was never considered merit-worthy by the book writing class of that period.<br />
<br />
A more meaningful overview of entomology may be gained by reading and synthesizing a large number of historical bits, and there are a growing number of such pieces. A 1973 book published by the Annual Reviews Inc. should be of some interest. I have appended a selection of sources that are useful in piecing together a historic view of entomology in India. It helps however to have a broad skeleton on which to attach these bits and minutiae. Here, there are truly verbose and terminology-filled systems developed by historians of science (for example, see <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actor%E2%80%93network_theory" target="_blank">ANT</a>). I prefer an approach that is free of a jargon overload or the need to cite French intellectuals. The growth of entomology can be examined along three lines - <b>cataloguing </b>- the collection of artefacts and the assignment of names, <b>communication and vocabulary-building </b>- social actions involving the formation of groups of interested people who work together building common structure with the aid of fixing records in journals often managed beyond individual lifetimes by scholarly societies, and <b>pattern-finding </b>a stage when hypotheses are made, and predictions tested. I like to think that anyone learning entomology also goes through these activities, often in this sequence. Professionalization makes it easier for people to get to the later stages. This process is aided by having comprehensive texts, keys, identification guides and manuals, systems of collections and curators. The skills involved in the production - ways to prepare specimens, observe, illustrate, or describe are often not captured by the books themselves and that is where institutions play (or ought to play) an important role.<br />
<br />
<b>Cataloguing </b><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The cataloguing phase of knowledge gathering, especially of the (larger and more conspicuous) insect species of India grew rapidly thanks to the craze for natural history cabinets of the wealthy (made socially meritorious by the idea that appreciating the works of the <i>Creator </i>was as good as attending church) in Britain and Europe and their ability to tap into networks of collectors working within the colonial enterprise. The cataloguing phase can be divided into the non-scientific cabinet-of-curiosity style especially followed before Darwin and the more scientific forms. The idea that insects could be preserved by drying and kept for reference by pinning,<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> [See Barnard 2018]</span> the system of binomial names, the idea of designating type specimens that could be inspected by anyone describing new species, the system of priority in assigning names were some of the innovations and cultural rules created to aid cataloguing. These rules were enforced by scholarly societies, their members (which would later lead to such things as codes of nomenclature suggested by rule makers like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Edwin_Strickland" target="_blank">Strickland</a>, now dealt with by committees that oversee the ICZN Code) and their journals. It would be wrong to assume that the cataloguing phase is purely historic and no longer needed. It is a phase that is constantly involved in the creation of new knowledge. Labels, catalogues, and referencing whether in science or librarianship are essential for all subsequent work to be discovered and are essential to science based on building on the work of others, climbing the shoulders of giants to see further. Cataloguing was probably what the physicists <a href="https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/05/08/stamp/" target="_blank">derided </a>as "stamp-collecting".<br />
<br />
<b>Communication and vocabulary building</b><br />
<br />
The other phase involves social activities, the creation of specialist language, groups, and "culture". The methods and tools adopted by specialists also helps in producing associations and the identification of boundaries that could spawn new associations. The formation of groups of people based on interests is something that ethnographers and sociologists have examined in the context of science. Textbooks, taxonomic monographs, and major syntheses also help in building community - they make it possible for new entrants to rapidly move on to joining the earlier formed groups of experts. Whereas some of the early learned societies were spawned by people with wealth and leisure, some of the later societies have had other economic forces in their support. <br />
<br />
Like species, interest groups too specialize and split to cover more specific niches, such as those that deal with applied areas such as agriculture, medicine, veterinary science and forensics. There can also be interest in behaviour, and evolution which, though having applications, are often do not find economic support.<br />
<br />
<b>Pattern finding </b><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9b/Eleanor_Anne_Ormerod_(1828-1901).jpg/737px-Eleanor_Anne_Ormerod_(1828-1901).jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="576" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9b/Eleanor_Anne_Ormerod_(1828-1901).jpg/737px-Eleanor_Anne_Ormerod_(1828-1901).jpg" width="230" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eleanor Ormerod, an unexpected influence<br />
in the rise of economic entomology in India</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The pattern finding phase when reached allows a field to become professional - with paid services offered by practitioners. It is the phase in which science flexes its muscle, specialists gain social status, and are able to make livelihoods out of their interest. Lefroy (1904) cites <b>economic entomology </b>in India as beginning with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everard_Charles_Cotes" target="_blank">E.C. Cotes</a> [Cotes' career in entomology was cut short by his marriage to the famous Canadian journalist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sara_Jeannette_Duncan" target="_blank">Sara Duncan</a> in 1889 and he shifted to writing] in the Indian Museum in 1888. But he surprisingly does not mention any earlier attempts, and one finds that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Green_Balfour" target="_blank">Edward Balfour</a>, that encyclopaedic-surgeon of Madras collated a list of insect pests in 1887 and <a href="https://archive.org/details/agriculturalpest00balfrich/page/7" target="_blank">drew inspiration</a> from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_Anne_Ormerod" target="_blank">Eleanor Ormerod</a> who hints at the idea of getting government support, noting that it would cost very little given that she herself worked with no remuneration to provide a service for agriculture in England. Her letters were also forwarded to the Secretary of State for India and it is quite possible that Cotes' appointment was a direct result.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
As can be imagined, economics, society, and the way science is supported
- royal patronage, family, state, "free markets", crowd-sourcing,
or mixes of these - impact the way an individual or a field progresses. Entomology was among the first fields of zoology that managed
to gain economic value with the possibility of paid employment. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lack" target="_blank">David Lack</a>, who later became an influential ornithologist, was wisely guided by his father to pursue
entomology as it was the only field of zoology with jobs. Lack however found his apprenticeship (in Germany, 1929!) involving
pinning specimens "extremely boring".<br />
<br />
<b>Indian reflections on the history of entomology</b><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/Kunhikannan.jpg/777px-Kunhikannan.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="607" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/Kunhikannan.jpg/777px-Kunhikannan.jpg" width="242" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kunhikannan died at the rather young age of 47</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
A rather interesting analysis of Indian science is made by the first native Indian entomologist, with the official title of "entomologist" in the state of Mysore - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K._Kunhikannan" target="_blank">K. Kunhikannan</a>. Kunhikannan was deputed to pursue a Ph.D. at Stanford (for some unknown reason two pre-Independence Indian entomologists trained in Stanford rather than England - see postscript) through his superior <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Coleman" target="_blank">Leslie Coleman</a>. At Stanford, Kunhikannan gave a talk on Science in India. He noted in that 1923 talk :<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In the field of natural sciences the Hindus did not make any progress.
The classifications of animals and plants are very crude. It seems to me
possible that this singular lack of interest in this branch of
knowledge was due to the love of animal life. It is difficult for
Westerners to realise how deep it is among Indians. The observant
traveller will come across people trailing sugar as they walk along
streets so that ants may have a supply, and there are priests in certain
sects who veil that face while reading sacred books that they may avoid
drawing in with their breath and killing any small unwary insects. [<i>Note: Salim Ali expressed a similar view</i> ]</blockquote>
He then examines science sponsored by state institutions, by universities and then by individuals. About the last he writes:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Though I deal with it last it is the first in importance. Under it has
to be included all the work done by individuals who are not in
Government employment or who being government servants devote their
leisure hours to science. A number of missionaries come under this
category. They have done considerable work mainly in the natural
sciences. There are also medical men who devote their leisure hours to
science. The discovery of the transmission of malaria was made not
during the course of Government work. These men have not received much
encouragement for research or reward for research, but they deserve the
highest praise., European officials in other walks of life have made
signal contributions to science. The fascinating volumes of E. H. Aitken
and Douglas Dewar are the result of observations made in the field of
natural history in the course of official duties. Men like these have
formed themselves into an association, and a journal is published by the
Bombay Natural History Association<span style="color: red;">[sic]</span>, in which valuable observations are
recorded from time to time. That publication has been running for over a
quarter of a century, and its volumes are a mine of interesting
information with regard to the natural history of India.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
This
then is a brief survey of the work done in India. As you will see it is
very little, regard being had to the extent of the country and the size
of her population. I have tried to explain why Indians' contribution is
as yet so little, how education has been defective and how opportunities
have been few. Men do not go after scientific research when reward is
so little and facilities so few. But there are those who will say that
science must be pursued for its own sake. That view is narrow and does
not take into account the origin and course of scientific research. Men
began to pursue science for the sake of material progress. The Arab
alchemists started chemistry in the hope of discovering a method of
making gold. So it has been all along and even now in the 20th century
the cry is often heard that scientific research is pursued with too
little regard for its immediate usefulness to man. The passion for
science for its own sake has developed largely as a result of the
enormous growth of each of the sciences beyond the grasp of individual
minds so that a division between pure and applied science has become
necessary. The charge therefore that Indians have failed to pursue
science for its own sake is not justified. Science flourishes where the
application of its results makes possible the advancement of the
individual and the community as a whole. It requires a leisured class
free from anxieties of obtaining livelihood or capable of appreciating
the value of scientific work. Such a class does not exist in India. The
leisured classes in India are not yet educated sufficiently to honour
scientific men.</blockquote>
It is interesting that leisure is noted as important for scientific advance. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Green_Balfour" target="_blank">Edward Balfour</a>, also commented that Indians were "too close to subsistence to reflect accurately on their environment!" (apparently in <i>The Vydian and the Hakim, what do they know of medicine?</i> (1875) which <b>unfortunately </b>is not available online)<br />
<br />
Kunhikannan may be among the few Indian scientists who dabbled in cultural history, and political theorizing. He wrote two rather interesting books <i>The West </i>(1927) and <i>A Civilization at Bay</i> (1931, posthumously published) which defended Indian cultural norms while also suggesting areas for reform. While reading these works one has to remind oneself that he was working under Europeans and may not have been able to discuss such topics with many Indians. An anonymous writer who penned a prefatory memoir of his life in his posthumously published book notes that he was reserved and had only a small number of people to talk to outside of his professional work. Kunhikannan came from the Thiyya community which initially preferred English rule to that of natives but changed their mind in later times. Kunhikannan's beliefs also appear to follow the same trend. <br /><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b2/Entomology_meeting_1919.jpg/1280px-Entomology_meeting_1919.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="519" data-original-width="800" height="414" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b2/Entomology_meeting_1919.jpg/1280px-Entomology_meeting_1919.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Entomologists meeting at Pusa in 1919</b><br />
Third row: C.C. Ghosh (assistant entomologist), Ram Saran ("field man"), Gupta, P.V. Isaac, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelsetti_Ramachandra_Rao" target="_blank">Y. Ramachandra Rao</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Afzal_Husain" target="_blank">Afzal Husain</a>, Ojha, A. Haq<br />
Second row: M. Zaharuddin, C.S. Misra, D. Naoroji, Harchand Singh,
G.R. Dutt (<span class="st">Personal Assistant to the Imperial Entomologist<i>)</i></span>, E.S. David (<span class="st">Entomological Assistant, United Provinces)</span>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K._Kunhikannan" target="_blank">K. Kunhi Kannan</a>, Ramrao S. Kasergode (<span class="st">Assistant Professor of Entomology, Poona)</span>, J.L.Khare (lecturer in entomology, Nagpur),
T.N. Jhaveri (assistant entomologist, Bombay), V.G.Deshpande, R. Madhavan Pillai (<span class="st">Entomological Assistant, Travancore)</span>, Patel, Ahmad Mujtaba (head fieldman), P.C. Sen<br />
First row: Capt. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Froilano_de_Mello" target="_blank">Froilano de Mello</a>, W Robertson-Brown (agricultural officer, NWFP), S.
Higginbotham, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_M._Inglis" target="_blank">C.M. Inglis</a>,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyril_Beeson" target="_blank"> C.F.C. Beeson</a>, Dr Lewis Henry Gough (entomologist in Egypt), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bainbrigge_Fletcher" target="_blank">Bainbrigge Fletcher</a>,
Bentley, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_A._Senior-White" target="_blank">Senior-White</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._V._Ramakrishna_Ayyar" target="_blank">T.V. Rama Krishna Ayyar</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claud_Mackenzie_Hutchinson" target="_blank">C.M. Hutchinson</a>,
Andrews, H.L.Dutt</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNjA7emPt9052khh77ECu7k9fe-ya1mmf60cg74J7dyixzsRx3S6fSG-4lfp3KmzPFSoZ_1Ui6rf79PGdCQwGCm16zByvquhT4UKfz0o2RiRD1An1mX-kYEtK-RTQcz-LqhZQy92SY8to/s1600/entomology+1923.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1025" data-original-width="1600" height="408" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNjA7emPt9052khh77ECu7k9fe-ya1mmf60cg74J7dyixzsRx3S6fSG-4lfp3KmzPFSoZ_1Ui6rf79PGdCQwGCm16zByvquhT4UKfz0o2RiRD1An1mX-kYEtK-RTQcz-LqhZQy92SY8to/s640/entomology+1923.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Entomologists meeting at Pusa in 1923</b><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fifth row (standing) Mukerjee, G.D.Ojha, Bashir, Torabaz Khan, D.P. Singh</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fourth row (standing) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.O.T._Iyengar" target="_blank">M.O.T. Iyengar</a> (a malariologist), R.N. Singh, S. Sultan Ahmad, G.D. Misra, Sharma, Ahmad Mujtaba, Mohammad Shaffi</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Third row (standing) Rao Sahib <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelsetti_Ramachandra_Rao" target="_blank">Y Rama Chandra Rao</a>, D Naoroji, G.R.Dutt, Rai Bahadur C.S. Misra, SCJ Bennett (bacteriologist, Muktesar), P.V. Isaac, T.M. Timoney, Harchand Singh, S.K.Sen</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Second row (seated) Mr <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Afzal_Husain" target="_blank">M. Afzal Husain</a>, Major <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hingston" target="_blank">RWG Hingston</a>, Dr <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyril_Beeson" target="_blank">C F C Beeson</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bainbrigge_Fletcher" target="_blank">T. Bainbrigge Fletcher</a>, P.B. Richards, J.T. Edwards, Major<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Alexander_Sinton" target="_blank"> J.A. Sinton</a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
First row (seated) Rai Sahib PN Das (veterinary department Orissa), B B Bose, Ram Saran, R.V. Pillai, M.B. Menon, V.R. Phadke (veterinary college, Bombay)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>Note: </b>As usual, these notes are spin-offs from researching and writing Wikipedia entries. It is remarkable that even some people in high offices, such as P.V. Isaac, the last Imperial Entomologist, grandfather of noted writer Arundhati Roy, are largely unknown (except as the near-fictional Pappachi in Roy's <i>God of Small Things</i>)<br />
<b></b>
<br />
<b>Further reading</b></div>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li>Balfour, Edward (1887). <a href="https://archive.org/details/agriculturalpest00balfrich" target="_blank">The agricultural pests of India, and of eastern and southern Asia, vegetable and animal, injurious to man and his products</a>. London: Bernard Quaritch.</li>
<li>Ball, V. 1885. On the identification of the
animals and plants of India which were known to early Greek authors.
The Indian Antiquary. 14:<a href="https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.176350/2015.176350.The-Indian-Antiquary-Vol-Xiv#page/n305/mode/1up">274-287</a>,
<a href="https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.176350/2015.176350.The-Indian-Antiquary-Vol-Xiv#page/n336/mode/1up">303-311</a>,
<a href="https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.176350/2015.176350.The-Indian-Antiquary-Vol-Xiv#page/n372/mode/1up">334-341</a>
</li>
<li>Barnard, Peter C. (2018). <i>Bat-Fowlers, Pooters and Cyanide Jars: a Historical Overview of Insect Collecting and Preservation </i>in MacGregor, A. (Ed.). <i>
Naturalists in the Field
.</i> Brill.</li>
<li>Clark, J.F.M. (2001). <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3744922" target="_blank">Bugs in the System: Insects, Agricultural Science, and Professional Aspirations in Britain, 1890-1920.</a> Agricultural History 75(1):83-114.</li><li>Dave, K.N. (1950) Lac and the lac insect in the Atharva veda. Int Acad Ind Cult Nagpur, 16 pp. [Dave incidentally, is also the translator and interpreter of another problematic work on ornithological knowledge in ancient Indian literature] </li><li>Dover, Cedric (1922) <a href="http://www.southasiaarchive.com/Content/sarf.120137/211237/014" target="_blank">Entomology in India</a>. The Calcutta Review 3(2):336-349. [<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedric_Dover" target="_blank">Dover </a>makes a plea for greater funding for entomology: <i>Like Magda, Queen of Sheba, whose devotion to Learning made her set out for Jerusalem, the capital of the kingdom of Solomon, they have entered the domain of Science not with the object of any financial benefit to themselves but for their love of Knowledge. They have worked in the interests of Science alone, yet certain branches of their work has saved India millions of rupees, while other, have added large sums to her coffers. Is it not then up to the Government to improve the status of entomology in this country and to make it a more lucrative profession? </i>]<br /></li>
<li>Essig, E.O. (1931) <a href="https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.18997/" target="_blank">A history of entomology.</a> New York: The Macmillan Company. </li>
<li>Farber, P.L. (1976). The type-concept in zoology during the first half
of the nineteenth century. Journal of the History of Biology
9(1):93–119. </li>
<li>Hewitt, C. Gordon (1916). <a href="http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/fiji/pdf/hewitt1916.pdf" target="_blank">A review of applied entomology in the British Empire.</a> Annals of the Entomological Society of America. 9(1):1–33.</li>
<li>Howard, L.O. (1930). <a href="https://repository.si.edu/handle/10088/23848" target="_blank">A history of applied entomology</a> (Somewhat Anecdotal). Smithsonian Institution. Publication 3065. </li>
<li>Husain, Mohamad Afzal (1938). <a href="https://www.currentscience.ac.in/Downloads/article_id_006_08_0419_0430_0.pdf" target="_blank">Entomology in India, past, present and future</a>. Current Science 6(8):422-424. [This is a summary, for the <a href="https://archive.org/details/IndianEntomologyHistory" target="_blank">full address</a> see - Husain, M. Afzal (1939). "Entomology in India: Past, Present and Future." <a href="https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.229592/page/n337">Proceedings of the Twenty-fifth Indian Science Congress, Calcutta, 1938</a>. pp. 201–246]</li>
<li>Lefroy, Maxwell (1904). <a href="https://archive.org/details/scientificreport190411impeuoft/page/89" target="_blank">Historical summary in Report of the Entomologist to the Government of India.</a></li>
<li>Lienhard, S. (1978) <a href="http://www.asiainstitutetorino.it/Indologica/volumes/vol06/vol06_art14_Lienhard.pdf" target="_blank">On the meaning and use of the word indragopa</a>. Indologica Taurinensia 6:177-188. </li>
<li>Lockwood, J.A. (2012) <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-ento-120710-100618" target="_blank">Insects as weapons ofwar, terror, and torture.</a> Annual Review of Entomology 57:205-227.</li>
<li>Mahdihassan, S. (1986). <a href="https://insa.nic.in/writereaddata/UpLoadedFiles/IJHS/Vol21_2_8_SMahdihassan.pdf" target="_blank">Lac and its decolourization by orpiment as traced to Babylon</a>. Indian Journal of History of Science 21(2):187-192. </li>
<li>Melillo, E. D. (2013). <i>Global Entomologies: Insects, Empires, and the “Synthetic Age” in World History. Past & Present, </i>223(1):233–270. doi:<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gtt026" target="_blank">10.1093/pastj/gtt026</a></li><li>Moses, S.T. (1925). <a href="https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.367511/page/n19/mode/1up" target="_blank">Insect pests and some south Indian beliefs.</a> Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society. 26(1):15-19. <br /></li>
<li>Rao, H. Srinivasa (1957) <a href="https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/48182905" target="_blank">History of our knowledge of the Indian fauna through the ages.</a> Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 54:251-280.</li>
<li>Rao, B.R. Subba (1983). <a href="https://www.currentscience.ac.in/Downloads/article_id_052_21_0997_1000_0.pdf" target="_blank">Systematic entomology in India - past, present and future.</a> Current Science 52(21):997-1000.</li>
<li>Romero, D.B. (2007). El díkairon en la obra
Indika de Ctesias de Cnido. Propuesta de identificación. Emerita
75(2):255-272.</li>
<li>Roy, Rohan Deb (2017). <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/malarial-subjects/00BEE3F5FAD80653C99B6674E2685D4D" target="_blank">Malarial Subjects</a>. Cambridge University Press. [Open-Access]</li>
<li>Roy, Rohan Deb (2013). Quinine, mosquitoes and empire: reassembling malaria in British India, 1890–1910, South Asian History and Culture, 4(1):65-86. doi:<a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19472498.2012.750457">10.1080/19472498.2012.750457</a></li>
<li>Service, M. W. (1978). Review Article1: A Short History of Early Medical Entomology.<i> Journal of Medical Entomology, </i>14(6):603–626<i>.</i> doi:<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jmedent/14.6.603" target="_blank">10.1093/jmedent/14.6.603</a> </li>
<li>Smith, Ray F.; Mittler, T.E.; Smith, Carroll N. (1973). History of Entomology. Annual Reviews Inc. ISBN 0824321017.</li>
<li>Sorensen, Conner (1988). <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3743286" target="_blank">The Rise of Government Sponsored Applied Entomology</a>, 1840-1870. Agricultural History 62(2):98-115. </li>
<li>Sutter, P. S. (2007). <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/529265" target="_blank">Nature’s Agents or Agents of Empire?</a> Isis, 98(4):724–754.</li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>An index to entomologists who worked in India or described a significant number of species from India - with links to Wikipedia (where possible - the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Insects/Entomologists" target="_blank">gap in coverage of entomologists in general is large</a>)<br />(woefully incomplete - feel free to let me know of additional candidates)</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Linnaeus" target="_blank">Carl Linnaeus</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Christian_Fabricius" target="_blank">Johan Christian Fabricius</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Donovan" target="_blank">Edward Donovan</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Gerhard_K%C3%B6nig" target="_blank">John Gerard Koenig</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_O._Westwood" target="_blank">John Obadiah Westwood</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_William_Hope" target="_blank">Frederick William Hope</a> - George Alexander James Rothney - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_de_Grey,_6th_Baron_Walsingham" target="_blank">Thomas de Grey Walsingham</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_John_Elwes" target="_blank">Henry John Elwes</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Motschulsky" target="_blank">Victor Motschulsky</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Swinhoe" target="_blank">Charles Swinhoe</a> - John William Yerbury - <a href="http://Edward Yerbury Watson " target="_blank">Edward Yerbury Watson</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Cameron_(entomologist)" target="_blank">Peter Cameron</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_George_Nurse" target="_blank">Charles George Nurse</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Tytler" target="_blank">H.C. Tytler</a> - Arthur Henry Eyre Mosse - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Harry_Evans" target="_blank">W.H. Evans</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_Moore" target="_blank">Frederic Moore</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_Leech" target="_blank">John Henry Leech</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_de_Nic%C3%A9ville" target="_blank">Charles Augustus de Niceville</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Annandale" target="_blank">Thomas Nelson Annandale</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Charles_Wroughton" target="_blank">R.C. Wroughton</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Reid_Davys_Bell" target="_blank">T.R.D. Bell</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Buchanan-Hamilton" target="_blank">Francis Buchanan-Hamilton</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Wood-Mason" target="_blank">James Wood-Mason</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_Charles_Fraser" target="_blank">Frederic Charles Fraser</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hingston" target="_blank">R.W. Hingston</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_Forel" target="_blank">Auguste Forel</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Davidson_(ornithologist)" target="_blank">James Davidson</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Hamilton_Aitken" target="_blank">E.H. Aitken</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmond_Charles_Ollenbach" target="_blank">O.C. Ollenbach</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Hannyngton" target="_blank">Frank Hannyngton</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Ephraim_Mosely" target="_blank">Martin Ephraim Mosley</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton_Herbert_Druce" target="_blank">Hamilton J. Druce</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Vincent_Campbell" target="_blank">Thomas Vincent Campbell </a>- Gilbert Edward James Nixon -<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Cameron_(entomologist)" target="_blank"> Malcolm Cameron</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Hampson" target="_blank">G.F. Hampson </a>- <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Jacoby" target="_blank">Martin Jacoby</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Forsell_Kirby" target="_blank">W.F. Kirby</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lucas_Distant" target="_blank">W.L. Distant</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Thomas_Bingham" target="_blank">C.T. Bingham</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_John_Arrow" target="_blank">G.J. Arrow</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Morley" target="_blank">Claude Morley</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Burr" target="_blank">Malcolm Burr</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samarendra_Maulik" target="_blank">Samarendra Maulik</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Anstruther_Knox_Marshall" target="_blank">Guy Marshall</a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Percy_Stebbing" target="_blank">Edward Percy Stebbing</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bainbrigge_Fletcher" target="_blank">T.B. Fletcher</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Ernest_Green" target="_blank">Edward Ernest Green</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everard_Charles_Cotes" target="_blank">E.C. Cotes</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Maxwell-Lefroy" target="_blank">Harold Maxwell Lefroy</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Milburn_Howlett" target="_blank">Frank Milburn Howlett</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickard_Christophers" target="_blank">S.R. Christophers </a>- <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Coleman" target="_blank">Leslie C. Coleman</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._V._Ramakrishna_Ayyar" target="_blank">T.V. Ramakrishna Ayyar</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelsetti_Ramachandra_Rao" target="_blank">Yelsetti Ramachandra Rao</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magadi_Puttarudriah" target="_blank">Magadi Puttarudriah</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hem_Singh_Pruthi" target="_blank">Hem Singh Pruthi</a> - <span class="st">Shyam Sunder Lal Pradhan</span> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Clark_Molesworth_Gardner" target="_blank">James Molesworth Gardner</a> - Vakittur Prabhakar Rao - D.N. Raychoudhary - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Muesebeck" target="_blank">C.F.W. Muesebeck</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithan_Lal_Roonwal" target="_blank">Mithan Lal Roonwal</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ennapadam_Sundara_Narayanan" target="_blank">Ennapadam Sundara Narayanan</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahadeva_Subramania_Mani" target="_blank">M.S. Mani</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._N._Ananthakrishnan" target="_blank">T.N. Ananthakrishnan</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Afzal_Husain" target="_blank">Muhammad Afzal Husain</a><br />
<br />
Not included by Rao - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._H._Gravely" target="_blank">F.H. Gravely</a> - P.V. Isaac -<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Afzal_Husain" target="_blank"> M. Afzal Husain</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus_Daniel_Imms" target="_blank">A.D. Imms</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyril_Beeson" target="_blank">C.F.C. Beeson</a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> - </b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._Brooke_Worth" target="_blank">C. Brooke Worth</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumar_Krishna" target="_blank">Kumar Krishna</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.O.T._Iyengar" target="_blank">M.O.T. Iyengar</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K._Kunhikannan" target="_blank">K. Kunhikannan </a>- <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedric_Dover" target="_blank">Cedric Dover</a><br />
<br />
<b>PS: </b>Thanks to Prof C.A. Viraktamath, I became aware of a new book- <b> </b>Gunathilagaraj, K.; Chitra, N.; Kuttalam, S.; Ramaraju, K. (2018). <i>Dr. T.V. Ramakrishna Ayyar: The Entomologist.</i> Coimbatore: Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. - this suggests that TVRA went to Stanford at the suggestion of Kunhikannan.<span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation book"> </cite></span></div>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
</ul>
</div>
Shyamal L.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14523054793854154400noreply@blogger.com0