Henry Benedict Medlicott. xxiii 



The end came quietly on April 6, 1905, when he was seated in his 

 study. 



Henry Medlicott joined the Geological Society of London in 1856, and 

 received the Wollaston Medal in 1888, on his retirement from the Indian 

 Service. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1877. He was a 

 Fellow of Calcutta University, and from 1879 to 1881 he was President of 

 the Asiatic Society of Bengal. He was also an Honorary Fellow of several 

 Foreign Scientific Societies, but he never made use of his titles, which he 

 regarded as simply " official." It may be remarked that he carefully omits the 

 letters F.R.S. after his name in all his survey publications, and even in the 

 " Manual " he struck out the initials after his own name, whilst leaving them 

 after his colleague's. Throughout his career, in fact, he appears almost 

 unnecessarily to have disregarded the honours to which he was entitled for 

 brilliant original work as well as good official service. 



His policy as head of the Survey was to assist his colleagues in every way 

 to publish the account of their observations in their own words. Occasionally 

 the result was that their views drew upon the authors replies from other 

 officers who took different views, or from geologists who had another opinion 

 on the subject. This was especially the case in palseontological questions, on 

 which he never pretended to decide difficult points. The policy adopted is 

 perhaps not quite in accordance with official usage, but there can be no doubt 

 that the result of Mr. Medlicott's principle was to bring out the facts in 

 a discussion, and not infrequently in a difficulty of high scientific and 

 economical importance, as in the various disputes over the Gondwana flora. 

 And not only did he obtain the help of the staff of the Survey in forwarding 

 the progress of Indian geology, but he succeeded in securing the valuable 

 assistance of the late General McMahon and others, who contributed obser- 

 vations on subjects of high interest in the geological history of the Indian 

 Empire. That he contributed no lengthy memoirs of his own, was simply due 

 to the fact that he regarded with horror any attempts to gain credit by others' 

 work. Short notes and an annual report were for many years his principal 

 contributions to the Survey publications. He was not a fluent writer, though 

 he could write strongly and earnestly, never so strong as when he was dealing 

 with attempts at injustice or plausible but misleading statements. He was 

 absolutely fearless, and cared but little of whose pet theory he was disposing, 

 if the theory was in his opinion worthless. 



It is difficult to appreciate Henry Medlicott's work in India without some 

 acquaintance with the knowledge of the geology available when he entered 

 the service. So great a change has taken place in the half century that has 

 elapsed since 1854, that it is scarcely possible to reconstruct the conditions 

 under which geological surveying was carried out 50 years ago. There were 

 no railroads and very few roads. Travelling was difficult and very slow, the 

 early surveyors had often to make their own maps in the wilder parts of the 

 country. Some idea of the Geology known in the days before the Survey may 

 be gained from Dr. H. J. Carter's ' Summary,' which appeared in the same 



