Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward
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Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward (1791 – 4 June 1868 in St Leonard's, Sussex) was an English doctor who popularised a case for growing and transporting plants which was called the Wardian case.


Biography

Ward was born in London, the son of Stephen Smith Ward, a medical doctor. Little is known of his early years and family life, but he is believed to have been sent to Jamaica at the age of thirteen where he may have taken an interest in plants. He practised medicine in a poor area of the East End of London and took an interest in botany and entomology in spare time or when on vacation in Cobham, Kent. Tyler-Whittle in his book, ''The Plant Hunters'', describes the area where he lived: Ward qualified as a member of the
Royal College of Surgeons The Royal College of Surgeons is an ancient college (a form of corporation) established in England to regulate the activity of surgeons. Derivative organisations survive in many present and former members of the Commonwealth. These organisations ...
in London in 1814,The Medical Register. 1859, p312. then later became a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1852. His four sons, Stephen (born 1819), Nathaniel (born 1821), John (born 1824) and Richard (born 1831) all went on to qualify as doctors and surgeons. Stephen and Nathaniel after qualifying both worked as assistants with their father at the family East End practice. John joined the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
in 1846 as an assistant surgeon, serving with distinction on HMS Vengeance during the
Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...
, with the youngest son Richard having his own practice in Central London.


Ward and the Wardian case

Ward first noticed the effects of a hermetically sealed glass container in 1829. He had placed a chrysalis of a sphinx moth in damp soil at the bottom of a bottle and covered it with a lid. A week later he noticed that a fern and grass seedling had sprouted from the soil. His interest piqued, he saw that evaporated moisture condensed on the walls of the bottle during the day, and ran back down into the soil towards evening, maintaining a constant humidity. The glass case that he used to rear butterflies and grow plants was used widely during the time for introducing plants into the British colonies. His first experiments with plants inside glass cases started in 1830. In 1833 George Loddiges used Wardian cases for shipping plants from Australia and said that "whereas I used formerly to lose nineteen out of the twenty of the plants I imported during the voyage, nineteen out of the twenty is now the average of those that survive". Loddiges was the vice-president of the Horticultural Society and Wardian cases became popular. He attempted to make a greenhouse at the Clapham garden on the principle of the Wardian case. This was however critiqued by
John Lindley John Lindley Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (5 February 1799 – 1 November 1865) was an English botanist, gardener and orchidology, orchidologist. Early years Born in Old Catton, Catton, near Norwich, England, John Lindley was one of four c ...
in the '' Gardeners' Chronicle'', who wrote that "when it is opened and shut from day to day, it has no more right to the name f Wardian casethan a common greenhouse". Lindley also wrote saying that Ward had an inordinate vanity and a desire to be "recognised sa second Newton". Dr Ward delivered a lecture on his discovery of a way to preserve plants in 1854 to the
Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
at the
Chelsea Physic Garden The Chelsea Physic Garden was established as the Apothecaries' Garden in London, England, in 1673 by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries to grow plants to be used as medicines. This four acre physic garden, the term here referring to the scie ...
. He also worked on microscopy and helped in the development of the Chelsea Physic Garden as a member of the board. He was elected a
fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...
in 1852. Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward died at St Leonards in Sussex and is buried in an unmarked grave in West Norwood Cemetery. He was honoured in 1837, when botanists William Henry Harvey and
William Jackson Hooker Sir William Jackson Hooker (6 July 178512 August 1865) was an English botany, botanist and botanical illustrator, who became the first director of Kew Gardens, Kew when in 1841 it was recommended to be placed under state ownership as a botan ...
named a species of
moss Mosses are small, non-vascular plant, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic phylum, division Bryophyta (, ) ''sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Wilhelm Philippe Schimper, Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryo ...
from South Africa after him, '' Wardia''.


References


Other sources

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External links


Biography

Norwood cemetery

Scan of Ward's publication
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, Nathaniel Bagshaw 1791 births 1868 deaths 19th-century English medical doctors English botanists Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Linnean Society of London Burials at West Norwood Cemetery