John Anderson (zoologist)
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John Anderson (4 October 1833 – 15 August 1900) was a Scottish anatomist and
zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...
who worked in India as the curator of the Indian Museum, Calcutta.


Early life

Anderson was born in
Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
, the second son of Thomas Anderson, who worked in the
National Bank of Scotland The National Bank of Scotland was founded as a joint stock bank in 1825. Based in Edinburgh, it had established a network of 137 branches at the end of its first hundred years. In 1918 the bank was bought by Lloyds Bank, although it continued ...
, 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 The Bank of Scotland plc (Scottish Gaelic: ''Banca na h-Alba'') is a commercial and clearing bank based in Scotland and is part of the Lloyds Banking Group, following the Bank of Scotland's implosion in 2008. The bank was established by th ...
. He left the bank to study medicine, and graduated from the
University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
in 1861. He studied anatomy under
John Goodsir John Goodsir (20 March 1814 – 6 March 1867) was a Scottish anatomist and a pioneer in the formulation of cell theory. Early life Goodsir was born on 20 March 1814 in Anstruther, Fife, the son of Elizabeth Dunbar Taylor and John Goods ...
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 Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing da ...
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.'') an ...
''. 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 The Indian Museum in Central Kolkata, West Bengal, India, also referred to as the Imperial Museum at Calcutta in colonial-era texts, is the ninth oldest museum in the world, the oldest and largest museum in India as well as in Asia. It has rare ...
at
Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, 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 James Wood-Mason (December 1846 – 6 May 1893) was an English zoologist. He was the director of the Indian Museum at Calcutta, after John Anderson. He collected marine animals and lepidoptera, but is best known for his work on two other groups ...
and made superintendent of the museum. He made several collection expeditions to China and
Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
. In 1867 he accompanied Colonel
Edward Bosc Sladen Sir Edward Bosc Sladen (20November 18314January 1890) was an Indian Army officer who served in India and Burma. He organised a provisional government in Upper Burma and oversaw the surrender of King Thibaw. Early life Edward was born in Madras, ...
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 Augustus Raymond Margary (26 May 1846 – 21 February 1875) was a British diplomat and explorer. The murder of Margary and his entire staff, while surveying overland Asian trade routes, sparked the Margary Affair which led to the Chefoo Conve ...
. 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 ''Hylomys'' is a small genus of the family Erinaceidae. ''Hylomys'' species, like all species in the subfamily Galericinae, are known as gymnures or moonrats. Their closest relatives include the fossil '' Lantanotherium'' and '' Thaiagymnura'' ...
''. 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 public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
British Museum Collection
/ref> and the
National Museum of Scotland The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, and the adjacent Royal Scottish Museum (opened in ...
.


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 ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
, forming the basis of his ''Zoology of Egypt''. He died in
Buxton Buxton is a spa town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some above sea level.Dean Cemetery The Dean Cemetery is a historically important Victorian cemetery north of the Dean Village, west of Edinburgh city centre, in Scotland. It lies between Queensferry Road and the Water of Leith, bounded on its east side by Dean Path and on ...
in Edinburgh. The portrait head was sculpted by
David Watson Stevenson David Watson Stephenson (25 March 1842 – 18 March 1904) was a Scottish sculptor, executing portraits and monuments in marble and bronze. Biography Stevenson was born in Ratho, Midlothian, Scotland, on 25 March 1842, the son of William Ste ...
.


Legacy

Species named after Anderson include: *''
Sacculina ''Sacculina'' is a genus of barnacles that is a parasitic castrator of crabs. They belong to a group called ''Rhizocephala''. The adults bear no resemblance to the barnacles that cover ships and piers; they are recognised as barnacles because t ...
andersoni'' , a
parasitic Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has c ...
barnacle. *'' 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 ''Trimeresurus andersonii'' is a venomous pitviper species endemic to the Andaman Islands of India. Common names include: Nicobar mangrove pit viper, Mehrtens JM (1987). ''Living Snakes of the World in Color''. New York: Sterling Publishers. 480 ...
'' , a venomous snake


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 The ibises () (collective plural ibis; classical plurals ibides and ibes) are a group of long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae, that inhabit wetlands, forests and plains. "Ibis" derives from the Latin and Ancient Greek word ...
,'' 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