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James Anderson (botanist)

Not to be confused with James Anderson of Hermiston or James Anderson (botanical collector).

James Anderson (17 January 1738–6 August 1809[1]) was a Scottish physician and botanist who worked in India as an employee of the East India Company. During his career in India, he was involved in establishing a botanical garden at Mambalam, Madras, originating from a nopalry or Opuntia garden where he made attempts to introduce the cultivation of cochineal insects. He then attempted to introduce various other economically valuable plants, and examined silk and lac production. He maintained a steady communication with his friend from youth, James Anderson LLD (1739–1808) who published some of his notes in The Bee, or Literary Weekly Intelligencer, which has led to the use of the distinguishing form James Anderson MD or James Anderson of Madras.

Engraving by Luigi Schiavonetti c. 1795 based on a miniature by John Smart (1741-1811)

Life

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Anderson was born on 17 January 1738 in Long Hermiston, west of Edinburgh, the son of surgeon Andrew Anderson and Magdalen Sandilands, daughter of Walter 6th Lord Torphichen.[2] He was educated at Ratho school, where his friend James Anderson (1739-1808) who founded the journal, The Bee, also went to, before studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh where his teachers included Professor William Cullen.[2][3]

Anderson became an East India Company naval surgeon in 1759, and was present during the Siege of Manila in 1763. He settled in the Madras Presidency in 1765 living mainly in Vellore until 1771 and became Surgeon at Madras in 1772 following the death of Samuel Scott. In 1780 he became Surgeon Major (with a salary of 100 pagodas a month), surgeon-general of Madras in 1781, and served as the president of the Madras Medical Board founded in 1786, and ultimately held the position of physician-general[3][4] with a pay of £2500 a year.[5]

Interested in medicinal plants and horticulture, he set up a botanical garden at Mambalam (or Marmalong) where Anderson introduced mulberry trees, bastard cedar (Guazuma ulmifolia),[6] and experimented with making silk[7] and lac.[8] He introduced apple trees also, and sought to produce local cochineal for which he established an Opuntia garden or nopalry.[9] He wrote on the cultivation of sugarcane, coffee and cotton (in 1790 he was involved in introducing Bourbon cotton in Salem, Thirunelveli and Coimbatore[10]), with several notes published in The Bee edited by James Anderson, LLD, his childhood friend with whom he kept a lifelong correspondence. They wrote biographical notes on each other.[11][12] Their names have led to confounding of some of their writings.[3][13][14]

In his medical practice, he also examined local therapeutics and examined plants of medical importance.[15] He found the native remedy of smoking the roots of "Datura ferox" effective in treating asthma.[16][17] He however did not recommend some native remedies such as arsenic containing pills for use in snakebite.[18] He examined the eye worm of horses[19] and described a case of epigastric heteropagus conjoint twins which was illustrated by Thomas Reichel.[20] While heading the Madras Medical Board, he recommended Lord Clive to abolish the system of plague-related quarantine at Ennore for ships bound to Madras.[21] He promoted the use of vaccinations in the prevention of smallpox[22] and for which he may have participated in a scheme to dupe Indians to believe that vaccination was an ancient Indian practice and therefore more acceptable. Scholar F.W. Ellis is thought to have created a Sanskrit verse that purportedly described the vaccine and a fake notice under an Indian pseudonym Calvi Virumbom was inserted into the Madras Courier,[23] a local newspaper and the "discovery" was then propagated widely.[24][25]

 
Plaster medallion by James Tassie, c. 1793

He died at his garden home in Madras which was later occupied by Sir Thomas Pycroft became Pycroft Gardens. He married Maria Rheta de la Mabonay on 1766 and they had a daughter Ann Anderson who married merchant Charles Wallace Young (d. 1801 at Palamcottah), a cousin of Dr Andrew Berry (Berry was Anderson's nephew, son of his sister Janet who was married to William Berry). Ann died in 1810 and her memorial was erected by Berry.[26] Anderson's bridge (over the Cooum, now called College Bridge between Moore's and Pantheon roads) and Anderson road (which remains in use, connecting Haddows and Greams Roads) were named after him and a monument to him by Chantrey is installed at St George's Cathedral in Madras.[27] His memorial in the compound of St. Mary's Church had a bust and a magnifying glass which are lost.[28]

Cochineal

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Memorial by Chantrey at St. George's Cathedral, Madras, showing a herbarium sheet on Anderson's lap with Opuntia bearing cochineal insects.

Trade in cochineal was predominantly controlled by the Spanish starting from 1523 to around 1730.[29] With the prices growing, and the growing demand for red coats with the English army uniform regulations introduced in 1645 had even led to piracy of Spanish ships sailing from Mexico to Europe. In 1786 James Anderson wrote to Joseph Banks about scale insects found in Madras that appeared to be similar to cochineal that he identified as Kermes. The generic name of this insect was proposed as Chloeoon by Anderson in 1788 with the type species being Chloeoon choromandelensis.[30] Anderson sent samples to Banks and in the meantime he learned from other correspondents that true cochineal grew only on Opuntia. At that time cochineal imports into Britain were about 200000 pounds per annum and the court of the East India Company was immediately interested. Banks identified the insects sent by Anderson as Coccus and it was declared by the dyers' guild to be useless. However Banks decided that the Spanish cochineal should be able to grow in Madras given the similar latitudes and he asked Anderson to organize a nopalry (Opuntia garden, Opuntia was earlier called Nopalea cochenillifera from which the term Nopalery or Nopalry is derived) in Mambalam ("Marmalon") with a grant of 2000 pounds from the Committee of Secrecy of the East India Company. Opuntia specimens with cochineal were then collected from Brazil in 1789 and shipped to India and they reached India. They were grown in Samalkotta by William Roxburgh. It was considered as a suitable food for famine relief but the people in the region refused it. Anderson however was able to get poor people in Madras to incorporate it into their food. Anderson then sent Opuntia across southern India supposedly for famine relief. Attempts to transport cochineal insects failed until a Captain R. Neilson collected some specimens at Rio de Janeiro and reached Diamond Harbour aboard the Contractor on 15 September 1794. Anderson also learned of Opuntia growing in the vicinity of Mylapore locally called naga kalli which had been brought in by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. Although a scale insect that yielded cochineal was established, it was found to be inferior to Mexican sylvestre cochineal. In 1797 about 4000 pounds of cochineal was produced a year in India and it increased in 1798 and rewards were offered for establishing "true" cochineal in India.[31] True cochineal Dactylopius coccus was not introduced to India during Anderson's lifetime, the species introduced from Brazil was likely Dactylopius ceylonicus which has a greater production of wax filaments. Anderson's nopalry was heavily damaged in the cyclone of 1807 and overgrown in 1808 when the last surviving Opuntia was noted by Maria Graham.[32][33] After his death, the garden was maintained by Dr. Andrew Berry.[3]

Taxonomy references

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William Roxburgh (1751–1815) named the genus Andersonia after him in 1832. The name is an illegitimate homonym as the name was already in use for a member of the Ericaceae described by Robert Brown in 1810.[34] The binomial of the eri silk moth Samia ricini has sometimes been attributed to Anderson but research now suggests that the correct author attribution would be to Jones (more accurately, Jones in Anderson, 1791) who gave the name Phalaena ricini in a letter to Anderson in 1791.[35][36]

The standard author abbreviation Anderson is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[37]

References

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  1. ^ Crawford, D.G. (1914). A history of the Indian Medical Service, 1600-1913. Volume 2. London: W. Thacker and Co. p. 22. Note:Gives date of death as 5 August 1809.
  2. ^ a b "Memoirs of Dr James Anderson physician at Madras". The Bee, or Literary Weekly Intelligencer: 16. 9 May 1792.
  3. ^ a b c d Desmond, Ray. "Anderson, James (1738–1809)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/476. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  4. ^ Crawford, D. G. (1909). "On Some Old Eighteenth Century Lists of the I. M. S." The Indian Medical Gazette. 44 (10): 394–398. ISSN 0019-5863. PMC 5132554. PMID 29004379.
  5. ^ Dodwell, Henry (1926). The Nabobs of Madras. London: Williams and Norgate. p. 116.
  6. ^ Anderson, James (1794). Letters for the culture of bastard cedar trees, on the coast of Coromandel.
  7. ^ Anderson, James (1791). "On the culture of the silk-worm in India". Beel, or Literary Weekly Intelligencer. 5: 292–294.
  8. ^ Roxburgh, W.; Anderson, James (1799). "IV. Description of the Lácsha, or Lac insect". The Philosophical Magazine. 3 (12): 367–369. doi:10.1080/14786449908677009. ISSN 1941-5796.
  9. ^ Raman, Anantanarayanan (2011). "Economic biology and James Anderson in eighteenth century Coromandel" (PDF). Current Science. 100 (7): 1092–1096.
  10. ^ Raju, A. Sarada (1941). Economic conditions in the Madras Presidency 1800-1850. University of Madras. p. 96.
  11. ^ Anderson, James (1809). "Memoirs of Remarkable Persons". Universal Magazine. 11 (64): 250–254.
  12. ^ Anderson, James (1792). "Memoirs of Dr James Anderson". The Bee, or Literary Weekly Intelligencer. 9: 1–17.
  13. ^ Sweet, Jessie M. (1972). "Instructions to collectors: John Walker (1973) and Robert Jameson (1817); with biographical notes on James Anderson (LL.D.) and James Anderson (M.D.)". Annals of Science. 29 (4): 397–414. doi:10.1080/00033797200200571. ISSN 0003-3790.
  14. ^ Prain, David (1925). "Government botanic gardens". Journal of the Royal Society of Arts. 73 (3768): 270–287. ISSN 0035-9114. JSTOR 41356881.
  15. ^ "[Review] A Catalogue of Indian Medicinal Plants and Drugs by John Fleming". Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal. 7 (25): 93–101. 1 January 1811. ISSN 0963-4932. PMC 5744810.
  16. ^ Jackson, Mark (2010). ""Divine Stramonium": The Rise and Fall of Smoking for Asthma". Medical History. 54 (2): 171–194. doi:10.1017/S0025727300000235. ISSN 0025-7273. PMC 2844275. PMID 20357985.
  17. ^ "On Stramonium". The Medical and Physical Journal. 26 (149): 48–58. 1811. ISSN 0267-0100. PMC 5699405. PMID 30492974.
  18. ^ Raman, Ramya; Raman, Anantanarayanan; Manohar, P. Ram (2014). "The arsenic and mercury-containing Tanjore pills used in treating snake bites in the 18th century Madras Presidency". Current Science. 106 (12): 1759–1763. ISSN 0011-3891. JSTOR 24103017.
  19. ^ Brown, Thomas (1823). "VII. Account of a non-descript Worm (the Ascaris pellucidus) found in the Eyes of Horses in India. In Letters from Alexander Kennedy, M. D. F. R. S. Edin. to Professor Russel and Dr Hope. With a Description of the Animal". Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 9 (1): 107–111. doi:10.1017/S0263593300037512. ISSN 0080-4568. S2CID 163182106.
  20. ^ Raman, Ramya; Raman, Anantanarayanan (2019). "Epigastric-Heteropagus Twins Recorded in Madras Presidency in 1789" (PDF). Indian Journal of History of Science. 54 (3). doi:10.16943/ijhs/2019/v54i3/49742. ISSN 2454-9991. S2CID 211657511.
  21. ^ Nair, Aparna (2009). ""An Egyptian infection": war, plague and the quarantines of the English East India Company at Madras and Bombay, 1802". Hygiea Internationalis. 8 (1): 7–29. doi:10.3384/hygiea.1403-8668.09817.
  22. ^ Ring, John (1807). "Mr. Anderson's Letter to Mr. Ring, on Vaccination". The Medical and Physical Journal. 17 (100): 540–545. ISSN 0267-0100. PMC 5677748. PMID 30491816.
  23. ^ "[To the editor of the Madras Courier]". Madras Courier. 12 January 1819.
  24. ^ Wujastyk, Dominik (1987). "A pious fraud: the Indian claims for pre-Jennerian smallpox vaccination.". In G J Meulenbeld; D Wujastyk (eds.). Studies on Indian medical history. Groningen: Egbert Forsten. pp. 131–167.
  25. ^ Ring, John (1805). "Mr. Shoolbred, on Vaccine Inoculation in Bengal". The Medical and Physical Journal. 13 (74): 336–347. ISSN 0267-0100. PMC 5670459. PMID 30490820.
  26. ^ MacKenzie, John M. (2022). "The Scottish Deathscape in South Asia: Madras and Ceylon". The Journal of Indian Ocean World Studies. 5 (2): 215–242. doi:10.26443/jiows.v5i2.116. S2CID 246358903.
  27. ^ Cotton, Julian James (1905). Inscription on tombs or monuments in Madras. p. 70.
  28. ^ Cotton, Julian James (1945). List of inscriptions on tomps or monuments in Madras. Volume I (2 ed.). Madras: Government Press. pp. 59–60.
  29. ^ Sinha, Arvind (1996). "Introduction of cochineal culture in India: English plan to break Spanish monopoly". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 57: 575–580. ISSN 2249-1937. JSTOR 44133362.
  30. ^ Williams, D. J. (2002). "Scale insects (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) described by James Anderson M.D. of Madras". Journal of Natural History. 36 (2): 237–246. doi:10.1080/00222930010023475. ISSN 0022-2933. S2CID 84461827.
  31. ^ Sweet, Jessie M. (1972). "Instructions to collectors: John Walker (1973) and Robert Jameson (1817); with biographical notes on James Anderson (LL.D.) and James Anderson (M.D.)". Annals of Science. 29 (4): 397–414. doi:10.1080/00033797200200571. ISSN 0003-3790.
  32. ^ Graham, Maria (1912). Journal of a residence in India. Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Company. pp. 125–126. ISBN 9788120614420.
  33. ^ Frey, James W. (2012). "Prickly Pears and Pagodas: The East India Company's Failure to Establish a Cochineal Industry in Early Colonial India". The Historian. 74 (2): 241–266. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6563.2012.00318.x. ISSN 0018-2370. S2CID 141801030.
  34. ^ Arce, Federico Exequiel; Lutz, Alicia Isabel (2015). "Acevedoa nom. nov., a replacement name for Andersonia Arce & Lutz 2010 (Insertae sedis), preoccupied by Andersonia R.Br. 1810 (Plantae, Magnoliophyta, Ericaceae)" (PDF). Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Geológicas. 31 (1): 138–139.
  35. ^ Peigler, Richard S.; Calhoun, John V. (2013). "Correct authorship of the name Phalaena ricini and the nomenclatural status of the name Saturnia canningi (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae)" (PDF). Tropical Lepidoptera Research. 23 (1): 39–43.
  36. ^ "OPINION 2376 (Case 3638). Saturnia canningi Hutton, 1859 (currently Samia canningi; Insecta, Lepidoptera, saturniidae ): name conserved". Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature. 73 (1). 2016.
  37. ^ International Plant Names Index.  Anderson.

Other sources

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  • Ray Desmond (1994). Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturists including Plant Collectors, Flower Painters and Garden Designers. Taylor & Francis and The Natural History Museum (London). ISBN 0-85066-843-3
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