José Camillo Lisboa (5 March 1823 – 1 May 1897) was a Portuguese physician and botanist. He was among the first Portuguese-

Goan Goans ( Romi Konkani: , ) is the demonym used to describe the people native to Goa, India, formerly part of Portuguese India (''Estado Português da Índia''). They form an ethno-linguistic group resulting from the assimilation of Indo-Aryan, ...

physicians and graduated from the inaugural class of the

Grant Medical College The Grant Government Medical College is a public university, public medical school, medical college located in Mumbai, India. It is affiliated to the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences. Founded in 1845, it is one of the oldest medical co ...

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

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 ...

. After graduating in 1851, he worked as a doctor at the Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy Hospital in Bombay. Along with his wife Julia Rodrigues Lisboa, he studied the grasses of

western India Western India is a loosely defined region of India consisting of western states of India, Republic of India. The Ministry of Home Affairs (India), Ministry of Home Affairs in its Western Zonal Council Administrative divisions of India, Adminis ...

and published a special volume on the useful plants of the region as part of the

Gazetteer A gazetteer is a geographical dictionary or wikt:directory, directory used in conjunction with a map or atlas.Aurousseau, 61. It typically contains information concerning the geographical makeup, social statistics and physical features of a co ...

of the Bombay Presidency in 1886.

Early life and career

Lisboa was born in

Assagão Assagao is a village in Bardez, Goa, India located about 4 kilometres west of Mapusa. It is known as the "Land of Flowers" as well as several other nicknames – "Goa’s South Extension", "Artist’s village", "The Beverly Hills of Goa", ...

Bardes ''Bardez'' or ''Bardes'' ( IPA: ) is a ''taluka'' of the North Goa district in the Indian state of Goa. Etymology The name is credited to the Saraswat Brahmin immigrants who emigrated to the Konkan via Magadha plains in northern India. Ba ...

, son of Antonio Xavier Lisboa. His early education was at home under an uncle who was also a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

. He then studied in the Parish Music School before going to

Margão Margao (, ) is the commercial capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Goa. It stands on the banks of the river Sal River (India), Sal. It is the district headquarters of South Goa district, South Goa, and administr ...

where he studied Portuguese, Latin, mathematics and history. He studied at the 22nd Regiment School in

Poona Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...

and was among the first eight students to study at the

and graduated in 1851. He then worked briefly as a sub-assistant surgeon under British surgeon John Peet at the Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy Hospital and Grant Medical College and then began a private practice after rejecting a transfer to

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

, British India (now part of Pakistan). In 1871, Lisboa established the Grémio Lusitano where he gave lectures on the plants of the Bible. He was elected a member of the

Bombay Natural History Society The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), founded on 15 September 1883, is one of the largest non-governmental organisations in India engaged in conservation and biodiversity research. It supports many research efforts through grants and publ ...

(BNHS) in 1886 and took a keen interest in botany, publishing in the society's journal specializing later on the grasses. He also examined floral and climate change in Mahabaleshwar.

Personal life

Lisboa married Júlia Rodrigues (1840–1926), daughter of Prof. António Filipe Rodrigues. She too was interested in botany and independently contributed notes on grasses to the Journal of the BNHS. In 1886 he also compiled a list of useful plants in the Bombay Presidency classified by usage including a list of plants eaten during famines. This was published as a part of the Gazetteer of Bombay Presidency edited by

James Macnabb Campbell Sir James Macnabb Campbell, KCIE (1846–1903) was a Scottish administrator in India and ethnologist. During the 1890s he was a leading figure in the intellectual life of British Bombay. Life Born at Partick, Lanarkshire, on 4 October 1846, he ...

after whom Lisboa named a plant ''Arundinella campbelliana'' (now considered a synonym of ''

Jansenella griffithiana ''Jansenella'' is a genus of Asian plants in the grass family. ; Species * '' Jansenella griffithiana'' (C.Muell.) Bor - India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar * '' Jansenella neglecta'' S.R.Yadav, Chivalkar & Gosavi - Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a ...

''). Lisboa was politically outspoken and was a supporter of

Padroado The ''Padroado'' (, "patronage") was an arrangement between the Holy See and the Kingdom of Portugal and later the Portuguese Republic, through a series of concordats by which the Holy See delegated the administration of the local churches and g ...

favouring the accountability of the King of Portugal and wrote in the bilingual newspaper ''Abelha de Bombaim''. He was also a supporter of the

Konkani language Konkani, (Devanagari: , Konkani in the Roman script, Romi: , Kannada script, Kannada: , Koleluttu: , Nastaliq: ; IAST: , ) formerly Concani or Concanese, is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Konkani people, primarily i ...

and active in the Instituto Luso-Indiano.

Death and legacy

After the death of Lisboa at his home in Poona in 1897 following paralysis some months prior, Julia established a Gold Medal at the Bombay University with an award of . Lisboa had himself established a scholarship in botany at the Grant Medical College in 1882. The Assagão Union founded a school in his memory in 1923 called the Dr J C Lisboa School which existed until 1951. Lisboa's medical studies including those on leprosy (where he tried the extracts of '' Psoralea corylifolia''), and the medical properties of opium. He was one of the witnesses who gave evidence to the Indian Hemp Commission where he was in favour of moderate use of opium for relief under certain circumstances. Lisboa served also as a Justice of Peace, had been a member of the Bombay Natural History Society, the Asiatic Society of Bombay, a fellow of the

Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript a ...

(elected 1888, withdrew 1893, re-elected 1894), the Geographical and Medical Society of Lisbon and the Academie Internationale de Geographique Botanique. A road in Assagao is named after him. The grasses '' Tripogon lisboae'' and ''

Ischaemum lisboae ''Ischaemum'' is a genus in the tribe Andropogoneae, belonging to the Poaceae, grass family, widespread in tropical and semitropical regions in many countries. Many species are known commonly as murainagrass. In 2022Shahid Nawaz(an agrostologist ...

'' have been named after Júlia R. Lisboa who corresponded with botanists in England after the death of her husband (her name is sometimes given in the Portuguese form as Donna Lisboa).

Notes

References

External links

List of Bombay grasses and their uses
(1896)
Useful plants of the Bombay Presidency
(1883)
Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lisboa, Jose Camillo 1823 births 1897 deaths Goan people Fellows of the Linnean Society of London Members of the Bombay Natural History Society People from Portuguese India