Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T13:44:24.343Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Western Science in India before 1850

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

H. J. C. Larwood
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The establishment and consolidation of the British Empire in India occurred at a time of expanding interest and achievement in science in Europe. In India there was certainly an appreciation of the importance of this European science, for the growth of science education there in the early nineteenth century compares not unfavourably with that in England. But what kind of scientific interests and activities were to be found in India up to about 1850, and who were the men who pursued them ?

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 94 , Issue 1-2 , April 1962 , pp. 62 - 76
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1962

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 62 note 1 Larwood, H. J. C., 1958. Brit. J. Educ. Studies, 7, 36CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 62 note 2 One detailed study is H. Stansfield, 1957. The Missionary Botanists of Tranquebar, Liverpool Libraries, Museums, and Arts Committee Bulletin, 6, 19, which stemmed from the discovery of some of Klein's and Bottler's plants in Liverpool.

page 62 note 3 Tavernier, J. B., 1692. Les six voyages de Tavernier en Turquie, en Perse, et aux IndesGoogle Scholar.

page 62 note 4 Fryer, John. A new account of East India and Persia, being nine years' travels, 1672–1681. London, Hakluyt Society, 1909–1915Google Scholar.

page 63 note 1 Wight, R. and Walker-Arnott, G. A., 1834. Prodromus Florae Peninsulae Indiae Orientalis. LondonGoogle Scholar.

page 63 note 2 Hooker, J. D. and Thomson, Thomas, 1855. Introductory Essay to the Flora Indica. LondonGoogle Scholar.

page 63 note 3 Sandes, E. W. C., 1933. The Military Engineer in India. ChathamGoogle Scholar.

page 64 note 1 Crawford, D. G., 1914. A History of the Indian Medical Service, 1600–1913. LondonGoogle Scholar.

page 64 note 2 Stevenson, W., 1715. A sermon preach'd on the death of Mr. Edward Bulkley. LondonGoogle Scholar.

page 64 note 3 Woodward, J., 1729. An attempt towards a natural history of the fossils of England. Vol. 2: A catalogue of foreign fossils. LondonGoogle Scholar.

page 65 note 1 The contributions of the societies to the growth of science is made clear by P. N. Bose in Centenary Review of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1784–1883, part III. and Kirtikar, K. R. in Centenary Memorial Volume, J. Bombay Br. R. A. S., 1905Google Scholar, part V. See also Fermor, L. L., 1935. Proc. Nat. Inst. Sciences of India, 1, 10Google Scholar, and 1935, Yearbook of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1, 9Google Scholar.

page 66 note 1 I have been able so far only to glance at a few of such publications but in so far as they throw light upon the interests and activities of the Anglo-Indian general public of the time a more systematic study of these would be useful.

page 68 note 1 Philosophical Transactions, 1789, 79, 79CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 68 note 2 Sir Alexander Burnes acknowledged his indebtedness to these on his travels. JRAS., 1835, 2, 203Google Scholar.

page 68 note 3 Royle's desire to improve the cultivation of useful Indian plants is well shown by his book Essay on the Productive Resources of India, London, 1840Google Scholar. But he understood that the application of botany must be based on a firm foundation of systematic and physiological theory (see JRAS., 1836, 3Google Scholar).

page 69 note 1 Hamilton, though mainly a botanist, also wrote on zoology, geology, geography, and antiquities (see D. Prain, 1905. A sketch of the life of Francis Hamilton (once Buchanan), Ann. Roy. Bot. Garden Calcutta, 10. In vol. 5 of the same journal is “A brief memoir on William Roxburgh”).

page 70 note 1 Hardwicke was a great collector and assembled a private museum at his house at Dum Dum. See Heber, B., 1828: Narrative of a journey through the Upper Provinces of India from Calcutta to Bombay, 1824–1825, LondonGoogle Scholar. Heber, Bishop of Calcutta, gives a few sidelights on contemporary science.

page 70 note 2 Sykes wrote forty-five papers on a wide range of topics and is one of the most endearing of Anglo-Indians. He was in India from 1803 to 1831 and when he returned to England he continued to take a vital interest in Indian affairs (he was a Director of the East India Company and Chairman for one year). He was a member of many scientific societies and whenever he attended a meeting he never seemed to be at a loss for something amiable to say. His name occurs frequently in reports of meetings, his best achievement being recorded in the reports of the 1835 British Association meetings when he addressed four different sections in as many days. He was one of those like Dr. Horsfield who acted as unofficial “agents” in London for men working in the field.

page 70 note 3 In spite of his contributions to zoology and his reports on the language, ethnology and geography of Nepal, and in spite of his notable political services (Markham, C. R., 1876, Narratives of the Mission of George Bogle to TibetGoogle Scholar), Hodgson is one of the many Indian scientists whose names are missing from the Dictionary of National Biography.

page 71 note 1 op. cit.

page 74 note 1 Given in Royle, J. F., 1840. Essay on the Productive Resources of India. London, p. 372Google Scholar.

page 75 note 1 Vicary, N., 1847. Q. J. Oeol. Soc., 3, 349Google Scholar.

page 75 note 2 Smith, G., 1889. Stephen Hislop, Pioneer Missionary and Naturalist in Central India. London, p. 212Google Scholar.

page 75 note 3 Letters from India describing a journey in the British dominions of India, Tibet, Lahore, and Cashmere, during the years 1828, 1829, 1830, 1831, undertaken by order of the French Government by Victor Jacquemont, travelling naturalist to the museum of natural history, Paris. London, 1834Google Scholar. These letters do not deal with the scientific results of his expedition.

page 76 note 1 Konigberger, J. M., 1852. Thirty five years in the East. LondonGoogle Scholar. This book is interesting less for its natural history, and for the materia medica it contains, than for the light it throws upon medicine in India. He describes and discusses operations carried out under chloroform and ether in 1848–9 (only a year or two after its first use in Edinburgh), and gives some information about Dr. Esdaile who, by virtue of his use of mesmerism in major operations, should be recognized as a pioneer of some importance. (See also Crawford, op. cit., p. 153 et seq.)