Sir Joseph Fayrer, 1st Baronet (6 December 1824 - 21 May 1907) was an English physician noted for his writings on medicine in India. Events 1060 - Béla I of Hungary is crowned king of Hungary 1240 - Mongol invasion of Rus: Kiev Year 1824 ( MDCCCXXIV) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year Events 878 - Syracuse Italy is captured by the Muslim sultan of Sicily. Year 1907 ( MCMVII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland A physician, medical practitioner or medical doctor who practices Medicine, and is concerned with maintaining or restoring human Health Medicine is the art and science of healing It encompasses a range of Health care practices evolved to maintain and restore Human Health by the India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country

Cover of his book on venomous snakes

He was born at Plymouth, Devon. Plymouth ( is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England about south west of London. Devon is a large county in the South West of England. The county is also referred to as Devonshire, but that is an entirely unofficial name After studying medicine at Charing Cross Hospital, London, he was in 1847 appointed medical officer of HMS Victory, and soon afterwards accompanied Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, 3rd Earl of Mount Edgcumbe on a tour through Europe, in the course of which he saw fighting at Palmero and Rome. Charing Cross Hospital is a hospital in London, England. It was established in 1823 as the West London Infirmary and was originally located in Villiers Street London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Year 1847 ( MDCCCXLVII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Construction In December 1758 the commissioner of Chatham Dockyard was instructed to prepare a Dry dock for the construction of a new First-rate Rome ( Roma ˈroma Roma is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city with more than 2

Appointed an assistant surgeon in Bengal in 1850, he went through the Burmese campaign of 1852 and was political assistant and Residency surgeon at Lucknow during the Indian Mutiny. Etymology and ethnology The exact origin of the word Bangla or Bengal is unknown though it is believed to be derived from the Dravidian-speaking tribe Bang For the game see 1850 (board game. 1850 ( MDCCCL) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link Lucknow is also a mansion in New Hampshire Lucknow ( लखनऊ لکھنؤ Lakhnaū) is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh The Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of Sepoys of British East India Company 's army on the 10th of May 1857 in the town of Meerut, From 1859 to 1872 he was professor of surgery at the Medical College of Calcutta, and when the Prince of Wales made his tour in India he was appointed to accompany him as physician. Prince of Wales (Tywysog Cymru is a title traditionally granted to the Heir Apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom (and formerly the Kingdom Returning from India, he acted as president of the Medical Board of the India office from 1874 to 1895, and in 1896 he was created a baronet. A baronet (traditional abbreviation Bart, modern abbreviation Bt) or the rare female equivalent a baronetess (abbreviation Btss) is the holder

Fayrer, who became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1877, wrote much on subjects connected with the practice of medicine in India, and was especially known for his studies on the poisonous snakes of that country and on the physiological effects produced by their venom (Thanatophidia of India, 1872). The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as The Royal Society, is a Learned society for science that was founded in 1660 A venomous snake is a Snake that uses modified saliva venom, usually delivered through highly specialized teeth such as hollow fangs for the purpose of Prey In 1900 appeared his Recollections of my Life. He died at Falmouth, Cornwall, in 1907. Falmouth (Aberfal is a town Civil parish and Port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, UK.

Anthropology

He also took keen interest in aspects of anthropology. He invited Thomas Henry Huxley to India for an event but his invitation was declined. Thomas Henry Huxley PC FRS (4 May 1825 – 29 June 1895 was an English Biologist, known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy

June 14, 1866

[To Sir Joseph Fayrer]

My dear Fayrer–I lose no time in replying to your second letter, and my first business is to apologise for not having answered the first, but it reached me in the thick of my lectures, and like a great many other things which ought to have been done I put off replying to a more convenient season. I have been terribly hard worked this year, and thought I was going to break down a few weeks ago but luckily I have pulled through.
I heartily wish that there were the smallest chance of my being able to accept your kind invitation and take part in your great scheme at Calcutta. But it is impossible for me to leave England for more than six weeks or two months, and that only in the autumn, a time of year when I imagine Calcutta is not likely to be the scene of anything but cholera patients.
As to your plan itself, I think it a most grand and useful one if it can be properly carried out. But you do things on so grand a scale in India that I suppose all the practical difficulties which suggest themselves to me may be overcome.
It strikes me that it will not do to be content with a single representative of each tribe. At least four or five will be needed to eliminate the chances of accident, and even then much will depend upon the discretion and judgment of the local agent who makes the suggestion. This difficulty, however, applies chiefly if not solely to physical ethnology. To the philologer the opportunities for comparing dialects and checking pronunciation will be splendid, however [few] the individual speakers of each dialect may be. The most difficult task of all will be to prevent the assembled Savans from massacring the "specimens" at the end of the exhibition for the sake of their skulls and pelves!
I am really afraid that my own virtue might yield if so tempted!
Jesting apart, I heartily wish your plans success, and if there are any more definite ways in which I can help, let me know, and I will do my best. You will want, I should think, a physical and a philological committee to organise schemes: (1) for systematic measuring, weighing, and portraiture, with observation and recording of all physical characters; and (2) for uniform registering of sounds by Roman letters and collection of vocabularies and grammatical forms upon an uniform system.
I should advise you to look into the Museum of the Société d'Anthropologie of Paris, and to put yourself in communication with M. Paul Broca, one of its most active members, who has lately been organising a scheme of general anthropological instructions. But don't have anything to do with the quacks who are at the head of the "Anthropological Society" over here. If they catch scent of what you are about they will certainly want to hook on to you.
Once more I wish I had the chance of being able to visit your congress. I have been lecturing on Ethnology this year, and shall be again this year, and I would give a good deal to be able to look at the complex facts of Indian Ethnology with my own eyes.
But as the sage observed, "what's impossible can't be," and what with short holidays–a wife and seven children–and miles of work in arrear, India is an impossibility for me.
You say nothing about yourself, so I trust you are well and hearty, and all your belongings flourishing. –Ever yours faithfully, T. H. Huxley.

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911 is a 29-volume reference work that marked the beginning of the Encyclopædia Britannica The public domain is a range of abstract materials &ndash commonly referred to as Intellectual property &ndash which are not owned or controlled by anyone

External links

• Huxley correspondence archive