XVI 



Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



The interest then taken in the theories advanced in Germany as to the 

 causation of cholera induced the Senate of the Army Medical School to move 

 the Secretaries of State for India and for War to employ on a special enquiry 

 into this disease the two officers who, at the close of the summer session of 

 1868, should secure the highest places in the Indian and the Army Medical 

 Services respectively. Cunningham, who headed the combined list both on 

 entering and when leaving Netley, was the young Indian officer so chosen ; 

 his colleague from the sister service was the late Dr. T. E. Lewis, whose early 

 death in 1886, after his selection but before he could be elected into the Eoyal 

 Society, was much deplored by his contemporaries. 



After a visit to the late Eev. M. J. Berkeley, F.B.S., to study the methods 

 of investigation employed by that eminent mycologist, Cunningham in company 

 with Lewis went to Germany to learn the views and master the technique of 

 Hallier and De Bary, and to work for a time under Pettenkofer at Munich. 

 Eeturning to England in December the two young officers at once left for 

 India. They reached Calcutta in January 1869 and were attached as special 

 assistants to the department of the Sanitary Commissioner. For ten years 

 thereafter both were continuously engaged in important pathological and 

 hygienic studies. When at their headquarters in Calcutta this work as a rule 

 was done in collaboration ; when they were on deputation in the provinces it 

 was undertaken independently. The special cholera enquiry originally 

 entrusted to them began from the date of their leaving Netley and lasted until 

 May 1879, this service being rendered by Cunningham as an officer of the 

 military establishment until December 1874, when he was transferred to the 

 Civil department for additional employment in general enquiries into other 

 special forms of disease. His absences from headquarters during 1869-79 

 included tours in Madras during the cold season of 1870-71 and in North-west 

 and Central India during the cold season of 1872-73 ; the hot weather of 1876 

 he spent in North-west India, that of 1878 in Madras and that of 1879 again 

 in North-west India. 



In 1879 administrative considerations induced the Government of India to 

 merge the department of the Sanitary Commissioner in that of the Surgeon- 

 General. This change of organisation brought to a close the long association 

 of Cunningham and Lewis, so fruitful in useful results. In anticipation of the 

 alteration the services of Cunningham were placed by the Home department 

 of the supreme government at the disposal of the Government of Bengal, who 

 had resolved to establish a chair of physiology in their medical college at 

 Calcutta. Cunningham was appointed to this post in June 1879, but as Lewis 

 had been granted leave out of India and as the work of the new chair did not 

 commence until the opening of the winter session, this appointment was 

 confirmed by the Government of India on the understanding that the Bengal 

 Government would permit Cunningham to carry, on certain duties attaching 

 to his previous office until the " return of his recent coadjutor Dr. Lewis in 

 December." The professorship of physiology at Calcutta was held by 

 Cunningham from then till the close of his Indian service. 



