Joui-nal of Travel and Natural History 329 



DR FALCONER AND HIS LABOURS IN INDIA:- 



IN the annals of science there are but few who have had a greater 

 share in original discovery than the late Dr Falconer, and 

 there are certainly none who, with the same advantages, have left 

 so little on record by which posterity might decide on the true 

 value of their labours. With the exception of several brilliant 

 essays, scattered through various publications in Europe and India, 

 and especially with the exception of a fragment of the magnificent 

 work on the ancient Siwalik Fauna of India, he left nothing behind 

 worthy of his high ability and his enormous knowledge. As a 

 speaker, he had few rivals in brilliancy of debate and vigour of 

 repartee, and his influence in the Societies to which he belonged 

 will not pass away with the present generation. In undertaking 

 to edit Dr Falconer's papers, Dr Murchison has been confronted 

 with very great difficulties. The immense quantity of crude 

 scientific matter accumulated in Europe and Asia had to be re- 

 duced to some sort of order, and the notes taken at various times 

 during thirty years had to be compared and revised. The scientific 

 memoirs already printed, or existing only in manuscript, had to be 

 modified to agree with the change in the views of the author, con- 

 sequent on a more widely extended experience. The vigorous 

 and critical " intellect which would have erased the errors of first 

 impressions, and moulded scattered observations into one harmoni- 

 ous whole," was gone. The editor had to decide whether they 

 should be printed, or remain hidden from the sun for ever. In 

 choosing the former of these alternatives, he has thrown open to 

 paleontologists a mine in which they will seek treasure for many a 

 long year to come. We propose to discuss that portion of the 

 work which relates to Dr Falconer's labours in palaeontology and 

 botany in India. 



In the beginning of 183 1, Dr Falconer was ordered to the 

 station at Meerut, in the north-western provinces, where he per- 

 formed his first and last military duty, during twenty-six years of 

 service, in taking charge of a detachment of invalids proceeding to 



* " PalzEontological Memoirs and Notes of the late Hugh Falconer, A.M., 

 M.D." Compiled and Edited by Charles Murchison, M.D. 2 vols. 8vo. 

 Hardwick, London, 1868. 



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