n8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



SKETCH OF JAMES FERGUSSOK 



MR. JAMES FERGTJSSON, writer on architecture and its his- 

 tory, who died January 9, 1886, was distinguished for the dili- 

 gence with which he prosecuted his researches, and for the originality 

 of his conclusions. Although the subject to which he chiefly directed 

 his attention is usually classed among the arts rather than the sciences, 

 he brought so philosophical a spirit to its study ; so prominently re- 

 garded it in its archaeological and anthropological aspect, and so com- 

 bined with the questions which it raised those which relate to the de- 

 velopment of human civilization ; and so faithfully in all his work 

 upon it strove, as he expresses the thought, to raise its study from 

 the " dry details of measurements to the dignity of an historical sci- 

 ence," that he may well be considered entitled to a place among 

 scientific men. 



Mr. Fergusson was born at Ayr, in Scotland, in 1808, the son of 

 an array-surgeon, who had seen active service abroad, "who had a 

 liking for engineering as applied to architecture," and who wrote on 

 the construction of hospitals. He was taught in the High School at 

 Edinburgh and in a private school at Hounslow, and became a resident 

 of England by the removal of his father to Windsor. When he had 

 reached an age to start out for himself, he went to India, with a deter- 

 mination to work steadily in business for ten years, and then to retire 

 with such fortune as he might have been able to make. He associated 

 himself with a mercantile house in Calcutta, from which he withdrew 

 his interest in time to escape being involved in its failure, and after- 

 ward, having filled for a short time two or three administrative posi- 

 tions, became an indigo-planter in Bengal. 



Pie had, however, already developed a high interest in art, and 

 found in India an attractive field, and novel in many of its features, 

 for the cultivation of this taste and the increase of his knowledge. He 

 made a thorough exploration of the whole peninsula, traveling, for the 

 most part, on camel-back, and armed with a camera lucida, with which 

 he was an expert draughtsman. His attention was directed early to 

 the rock-cut temples of Ajunta, Ellora, and other places. " His per- 

 spicacity," says a critic of his life in the " Athemeum," " soon guided 

 him to a true explanation of the origin and character of these remains, 

 his familiarity with Indian life and modes of worship gave insight as 

 to the intentions of the excavators, and large comparisons enabled him 

 to decide on the positive as well as the relative ages of these astonish- 

 ing works. ... In effect, the first fruit of his researches was a denial 

 that the temples were architectural at all in the ordinary sense of that 

 term." His first publication of the results of these studies was the 

 " Illustrations of the Rock-cut Temples of India," which appeared in 



