John Anderson (zoologist)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

John Anderson (4 October 1833 – 15 August 1900) was a Scottish anatomist and
zoologist Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...
who worked in India as the curator of the Indian Museum, Calcutta.


Early life

Anderson was born in
Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
, the second son of Thomas Anderson, who worked in the National Bank of Scotland, and his wife Jane Cleghorn. He took an interest in natural history at an early age as did his brother Thomas Anderson, who worked at the Royal Botanic Garden in Calcutta from 1861 to 1863. He went to school at George Square Academy and Hill Street Institution before joining work at the Bank of Scotland. He left the bank to study medicine, and graduated from the
University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...
in 1861. He studied anatomy under John Goodsir and received his MD in 1862 with a gold medal for his thesis in zoology. He was also associated with the founding of the Royal Physical Society which grew out of the Wernerian Society over which he presided. He was appointed to the chair of natural history in the Free Church College in Edinburgh and worked there for the next two years. During this period he studied marine organisms based on dredging off the coast of Scotland, and published notes in the ''
Annals and Magazine of Natural History The ''Journal of Natural History'' is a scientific journal published by Taylor & Francis focusing on entomology and zoology. The journal was established in 1841 under the name ''Annals and Magazine of Natural History'' (''Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist.'') ...
''. He married Grace Scott Thoms, daughter of Patrick Hunter Thoms of Aberlemno, Forfar.


India

Anderson moved to India in 1864 to take up the position as the first curator of the Indian Museum at
Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...
in 1865. He catalogued the mammal and archaeological collections. He held the position of curator until 1887, when he was succeeded by James Wood-Mason and made superintendent of the museum. He made several collection expeditions to China and
Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...
. In 1867 he accompanied Colonel Edward Bosc Sladen as a naturalist on an expedition to Upper Burma and Yunnan. This expedition allowed him to collect the Irrawaddy dolphin, ''Orcaella brevirostris'' and compared with ''Orcaella fluminalis'' and the Gangetic dolphin, ''Plantanista gangetica''. In 1875–6, he travelled to the same area under Colonel Horace Browne. This was cut short due to the murder of the consular officer Augustus Raymond Margary. Anderson made a third expedition for the Indian Museum in 1881–2 to the Mergui archipelago, Burma. Anderson made comparative studies of anatomy of the species that he collected. He worked on reptiles, birds as well as mammals such as of the genus '' Hylomys''. He also wrote on the ethnology of the Selungs of the Mergui archipelago. Many of the plant specimens that he collected are at Calcutta, Kew and the Natural History Museum, London. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1879 and was made honorary LLD of the University of Edinburgh in 1885. During the time that he held the office of superintendent of the Calcutta museum he also served as professor of comparative anatomy at the medical school in Calcutta. He and his wife Gracei travelled to Japan in 1884, forming an extensive collection of Ainu artefacts, which was donated to the
British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
British Museum Collection
/ref> and the
National Museum of Scotland The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, is a museum of Scottish history and culture. It was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, ...
.


Return to Britain

He retired from service in India in 1886 just a few years after his marriage. He later made extensive zoological collections in
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
, forming the basis of his ''Zoology of Egypt''. He died in Buxton, England and was survived by his wife Grace Scott Thoms. They are buried together on the south side of Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh. The portrait head was sculpted by David Watson Stevenson.


Taxon named in his honor

*'' Sacculina andersoni'' , a parasitic
barnacle Barnacles are arthropods of the subclass (taxonomy), subclass Cirripedia in the subphylum Crustacean, Crustacea. They are related to crabs and lobsters, with similar Nauplius (larva), nauplius larvae. Barnacles are exclusively marine invertebra ...
. *'' Japalura andersoniana'' , a lizardBeolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Anderson, J.", p. 8). *'' Opisthotropis andersonii'' , a snake *'' Trimeresurus andersonii'' , a venomous snake *'' Glaridoglanis andersonii'' ( F. Day, 1870), a catfish that inhabits the Irrawaddy drainage,
Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...
and
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
. It has also been recorded from the Brahmaputra drainage in China.


Bibliography

Among the printed publications of John Anderson are: *Anderson, John (1881). ''Catalogue of Mammalia in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, Part I'' (Calcutta). *Anderson, John (1883). ''Catalogue and Handbook of the Archaeological Collections in the Indian Museum, Part I: Asoka and Indo-Scythian Galleries. Part II: Gupta and Inscription Galleries. Buddhist, Jain, Brahmanical, and Muhammadan Sculptures; Metal Weapons, objects from Tumuli, &c''. Printed by order of the Trustees, Calcutta. *Anderson, Grace Scott; Anderson, John (1884). ''Japan from India: letters & notes of the journey of two travellers, chiefly by one of them.'' Calcutta?: Privately printed. 287 pp. *Anderson, John (1896). ''A Contribution to the Herpetology of Arabia, with a preliminary list of the reptiles and batrachians of Egypt''. London: R.H. Porter. 124 pp. *Anderson, John (1898). "''Zoology of Egypt. Volume First. Reptilia and Batrachia''". London: Bernard Quaritch. 572 pp.


See also

* :Taxa named by John Anderson (zoologist)


References


Sources

*
'Obituary'
in: '' Ibis,'' series 8 vol 1, no. 1 (January 1901), p. 159.


External links


The Anderson brothers

Publications of the Indian Museum, Calcutta
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, John 1833 births 1900 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society Scottish zoologists Scientists from Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Edinburgh 19th-century Scottish medical doctors Curators from Edinburgh Fellows of the Linnean Society of London Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellows of the Zoological Society of London Scottish anatomists Scottish explorers Scottish people of the British Empire Burials at the Dean Cemetery British people in colonial India Fellows_of_the_Society_of_Antiquaries_of_London