xl PROCEEDINGS OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



finances of India into such embarrassment, that Lord William Ben- 

 tinck was called upon to push retrenchment to the utmost possible 

 limit. So urgent indeed was the demand upon him, that it is said 

 he meditated the abolition of the Botanic Garden of Saharunpore ; 

 but such was the display of honest sterling work performed, and of 

 most useful results obtained, which Dr. Koyle placed before the eyes 

 of the Governor- General, that Lord William Bentinck was spared 

 the reproach of committing what would have been considered an act 

 of Vandalism, and this most valuable institution was preserved, — 

 a service for which his memory will always be regarded with grati- 

 tude by Indian naturalists. 



Whilst this peril seemed to hang over one of the most cherished 

 objects of his scientific life, L)r. Eoyle meditated a retirement from 

 the service, as he could not have borne to remain in India after 

 science had been so degraded ; but as his energy, and, let it be added, 

 the speaking testimony of his scientific labours, had averted the dan- 

 ger, he bore with resignation those reductions of pay and emolu- 

 ments which affected him in common with other medical men, and 

 remained in India till 1832, when he returned to Europe with a 

 large and valuable natural-history collection. From that time to 

 1840 he devoted himself with characteristic energy to the investiga- 

 tion of the materials he had collected, and to the preparation for 

 publication of his great work, the ' Illustrations of the Botany and 

 other branches of the Natural History of the Himalaya Mountains :' 

 a work which is distinguished equally by the large amount of original 

 information it contains, and by the accurate research and comprehen- 

 sive views it exhibits. On his return he became a member of all 

 the great chartered scientific societies of London, and was named a 

 Vice-President of the Boyal Society, and latterly for several years 

 he was Secretary of the Horticultural Society, for the welfare of 

 which institution he felt a lively interest. The well-known ability 

 with which he had investigated the medical botany of India, led to 

 his appointment to the chair of Materia Medica and Therapeutics at 

 King's College on its first foundation ; and, as a member of the Royal 

 Asiatic Society, he, with his habitual energy, soon introduced to the 

 notice of that learned body a new branch of inquiry, in consequence 

 of which a committee was formed to investigate the productive re- 

 sources of India. The /Transactions' of the Society, which had been 

 before devoted chiefly to essays on the Languages, History, Mytho- 

 logy, Archaeology, and Numismatics of the East, were thus enriched 

 by a series of valuable papers on interesting commercial subjects by 

 Dr. Eoyle. The interest which was now awakened in the manufac- 

 turing districts respecting the raw products of India led to so many in- 

 quiries for information, that the Directors of the East India Company 

 were induced to establish a special department for the express purpose 

 of spreading knowledge upon such subjects ; and Dr. Eoyle, who had 

 previously resigned his post as surgeon without any pension or other 

 reward, having most wisely been placed at its head, he entered at 

 once upon an enlarged sphere of public usefulness, suited to his great 

 k talents and vast stock of acquired information. He was instrumental 



