William Theobald (1829 – 31 March 1908) was a

malacologist Malacology, from Ancient Greek μαλακός (''malakós''), meaning "soft", and λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is the branch of invertebrate zoology that deals with the study of the Mollusca (molluscs or mollusks), the second-largest ...

and

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

on the staff of the Geological Survey of India serving in

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 ...

, then a part of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

Biography

Very little is known of Theobald's early life. Theobald was referred to in official documents as "William Theobald, Junior". He arrived in Calcutta on the ship ''Hindostan'' via the

Suez Suez (, , , ) is a Port#Seaport, seaport city with a population of about 800,000 in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez on the Red Sea, near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal. It is the capital and largest c ...

in March 1847 and worked as a volunteer in the coal exploration of the upper Damodar and Son valleys under David Williams. During this time

Joseph Hooker Joseph Hooker (November 13, 1814 – October 31, 1879) was an American Civil War general for the Union, chiefly remembered for his decisive defeat by Confederate General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863. Hooker had serv ...

visited him and they spent time together. Later Theobald became an assistant to John McClelland who took over the exploration from David Williams. He went to Burma in 1855 as a staff of the Geological Survey of India and took over the ''Pegu survey''. He returned Bengal on completion of the survey in 1873 to be appointed Deputy Superintendent of Bengal in 1876.Mabberley DJ (1985). "William Theobald (1829-1908): Unwitting Reformer of Botanical Nomenclature?". ''Taxon'' 34 (1): 152-156. From 1868 to 1876 he described a dozen new species of reptiles. Theobald was the first to publish a full catalogue of reptile specimens collected in British India, ''Descriptive Catalogue of the Reptiles of British India'' (1876), although Anderson claimed that several new descriptions by

Edward Blyth Edward Blyth (23 December 1810 – 27 December 1873) was an English zoologist who worked for most of his life in India as a curator of zoology at the Asiatic Society, Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal in Calcutta. He set about updating the museum ...

were overlooked by this work.Chandal SK, Das I, Dubois A (2000). "Catalogue of Amphibian Types in the Collection of the Zoological Survey of India". ''Hamadryad'' 25 (2): 100–128
PDF
/ref> Theobald's work on Indian freshwater snails with illustrations was one of the first of its kind.Hanley SCT, Theobald W (1876). "''Conchologia Indica'': illustrations of the land and fresh-water shells of British India". L. Reeve & Co. p. 65 He even made his shell collections available to Francis Mason for his epic work on the flora and fauna of British

titled ''Burmah, its People and Natural Productions''. The third edition of this work was completely rewritten by Theobald and was published in two volumes under the title ''Burma, its people and productions; or notes on the fauna, flora and minerals of Tenasserim, Pegu and Burma'' (Hertford, England, 1882 & 1883). The first volume of this work covered geology, mineralogy and zoology and was exclusively written by him while the second volume relied on several important botanical works of his time. The phanerogamic information came from printed works of Sulpiz Kurz on the Burmese flora and from the entries in Edward Balfour's works. He also relied on Le Maout's and Decaisne's general system of botany translated by Mrs. Hooker and on Gamble's ''Manual of Indian Timbers''. However, his efforts at reforming botanical nomenclature conflicted with the British Botanical establishment at that time a majority in British India and his botanical works were largely disregarded. He retired from the service in June 1881 and died at

Ilfracombe Ilfracombe ( ) is a seaside resort and civil parishes in England, civil parish on the North Devon coast, England, with a small harbour surrounded by cliffs. The parish stretches along the coast from the 'Coastguard Cottages' in Hele Bay towar ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

, England on 31 March 1908. A photograph of him as member of a group of the Geological Survey of India was published in the Centenary publication of the Geological Survey of India.

Legacy

Theobald is commemorated in the scientific names of two Asian reptiles: '' Oligodon theobaldi'' and '' Phrynocephalus theobaldi''.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Theobald", p. 264).

Bibliography

* 1860
''Catalogue of the recent shells in the Museum, Asiatic Society of Bengal''
* 1868
''Catalogue of reptiles in the Museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal''
* 1876
''Descriptive catalogue of the reptiles of British India''
* 1876.
Conchologia Indica: Illustrations of the Land and Freshwater Shells of British India
' Along with Sylvanus Charles Thorp Hanley. Malacological Society of London. * 1889
''Index of the genera and species of Mollusca in the hand list of the Indian Museum''
1-2. Gastropoda, Calcutta. * 1896
''On the authorship of the sonnets attributed to Shakespeare. An inquiry into the respective claims of Bacon, Sir Philip Sidney, and others, to be their author''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Theobald, William 1829 births 1908 deaths British malacologists British people in colonial India People from British Burma