The late Dr. Heifer. 149 



attainments of which he had been giving proof by his interesting lec- 

 ture before the Asiatic Society on the indigenous Silk-worms of India, 

 that by the assistance of Government he might be able to pursue his 

 researches as a naturalist, as much for the benefit of Government as 

 for his own private advantage." Thus writes Col. Hutchinson, con- 

 stituting himself a judge of acquirements of which he could know 

 nothing, in a strange gentleman of whom he knew equally little, how- 

 ever respectably he may have been introduced ! 



With regard to the lecture on silk-worms at the Asiatic Society, all 

 that was original in it belonged to Mr. Hugon of Assam, whose 

 paper on silk-worms of that province was placed rather inexcusably 

 before publication, in Dr. Heifer's hands. The lecture consisted of a 

 chapter from the popular account of the manufacture of silk in Dr. 

 Lardner's Cyclopedia, from which it was transcribed word for word, 

 though read as an original composition, and received as such by the 

 President and members present who knew about as much of the matter 

 as Col. Hutchinson himself.* 



Science is by no means considered essential to good sense 

 by Englishmen. Before Dr. Heifer became acquainted with this 

 peculiarity in our national character, he was content as a physician 

 on his first arrival in Calcutta to commence practice as a Homeo- 

 pathist. In this he encountered the opposition of the faculty, 

 was constrained to abandon practice, and in the course of a week 

 to become a naturalist. Poor man, he required all the address he 

 possessed to sustain the elevated position in his new profession 

 to which the indiscretion of his friends raised him, but he had in this, 

 fewer competitors to encounter, than in medicine. Accomplishments 

 and address, more particularly a taste for Music obtained for Dr. 

 Heifer and his lady, influential friends in the highest circles, who 

 urged his acquirements, not in Music, but as a naturalist with 

 unceasing importunity on the Government, and if any one should feel 

 disposed to blame the measure of his employment in a scientific 

 capacity, what are we to think of the Asiatic Society as the first to 

 recognise such claims ? 



A promise of employment having been unconditionally afforded, 

 the next question his friends had to dispose of was his salary. Mr. 

 Griffith's employment on the N, E. Frontier was supposed to be a 

 case in point ; overlooking however the relative position of Dr. 

 Heifer as compared with a distinguished officer in the regular ser- 



* The circumstance was pointed out to Mr. J. Prinsep in time to prevent the 

 appearance of the lecture in the Journal of the Society. It was also exposed if 

 we may use the expression, in a letter singed Bombox Mori in the liurkaru. 



