Hugh Falconer

Biography

He is born with Forres in Scotland, more young person wire of David Falconer. In 1826 it obtains its license with the Université of Aberdeen where it studies the Natural history then it obtains its doctorate in medicine with the Université of Edinburgh where it follows the courses of Botanique of professor R. Graham (1786-1845) and of Géologie of Robert Jameson, the professor of Charles Darwin.

Falconer becomes surgeon assisting with the Bengal on behalf of the English Compagnie of the Eastern Indies in 1830. He studies the Fossile S of the area of Ava in possession of the royal Company of Bengal. Its descriptions published shortly after gives him a position recognized among the scientists working with the the Indies. At the beginning of 1831 it is named in a military station with Meerut.

Hills of Sewalik

It is superintendant botanical garden of Saharanpur in India of 1832 with 1842. During this period he studies the Fossile S of Mammifère S of the hills of Sewalik. He observes long periods of damnings up in the process of evolution followed by short periods of quick changes.

Falconer and its associates discover fossils of monkeys in the Années 1830 in the layers of the Tertiaire in the hills of Sewalik. This discovery is undoubtedly the first of the kind. Always in the same area it updates bones of Crocodile S, tortoise S and other animals. With his colleagues it shows the existence of a rich person Faune (biology) subtropical including remainders of Mastodonte S, Sivatherium and tortoise giants Testudo atlas. It publishes also a geological investigation of the hills of Sewalik. Its work is worth the to him Médaille Wollaston in 1837 divided with Proby Thomas Cautley (1802-1871).

First return in Europe

In 1834, at the request of the commission of Bengal, Falconer submits a report/ratio recommending the instruction of the black The in India to enter in competition with the The of China.

The disease forces it to return in Europe in 1842, it brings back with him 70 trunks of dried plants and 48 racks of fossils. He travels then through the Europe by making geological observations . He is elected member of the Royal Society in 1845 and secretary of the Geological Society off London.

Calcutta

In 1847 he becomes director of the botanical garden of Calcutta and professor of botany to the Medical College Kolkata. It is used for to advise with the Indian government and the company of agriculture and horticulture of Bengal, de facto the ministry for agriculture. It prepares a report/ratio on the drills of Teck in Burma of the south what saves them destruction by intensive demolition. On its recommendation the culture of Cinchona is introduced in the Indies.

Second return

Again affected by the disease it turns over to Europe in 1855. It passes the remainder of its life to examine the fossils of England and the continent and to compare them with those which it discovered in India, in particular the Mastodonte S, elephant S and Rhinocéros. It describes also new species of mammals in the layers of Purbeck in the Wessex. Turning to the question of the origin of the mankind he works on the fossil remainders of caves of Sicily, Gibraltar, Gower and Brixham.

Falconer is vice-president of the Royal Society of 1863 to 1864. Although patient and overloaded work it turns over hastily from Gibraltar to support Charles Darwin for obtaining the Médaille Copley in 1864. He dies in London the July 31st 1865 of disorder cardiac and pulmonary.

Legacy

The notes of Falconer on the botany of the Indian plants and the Cashmere, including 450 drawings, were deposited with the royal Botanical gardens of Kew with part of the specimens which it reported. A bust of Falconer can be seen in one of the rooms of the Royal Society and another with Calcutta. A Falconer purse of 100 £ was instituted for the medical students of the Université of Edinburgh. A museum, the Falconer Museum, exists but is currently closed for work.

The flower Rhododendron falconeri was named by Joseph Dalton Hooker according to his name.

Publications

Hugh Falconer and Proby T. Cautley, Fauna Antiqua Sivalensis, being the Fossil Zoology off the Sewalik Hills, in the North off India, Share I, Proboscidea, London (1846), with has series off 107 punts by G.H. Ford appearing between 1846 and 1849.
Palæontological memoirs and notes off the late Hugh Falconer, edited, with has biographical sketch, by Charles Murchison, M.D., 2 flights., London, R. Hardwicke (1868). OCLC: 2847098.
Hugh Falconer, Darwin Correspondence Project: extended bibliography
Falconer' S works were documented in the Royal Society' S Catalog off Scientific Papers, vol. II (1968).

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