150 



I^otice of the Scieniijlc labors of [No. 34, 



III. Notice of the Scientific labors of the late Dr. Alexan- 

 der TuRNBULL Christie^ loith extracts from his Official 

 Reports suhmitted to Govenmient. 



Among the papers transmitted by order of Government to the Li- 

 terary Society, for examination and publication in the Journal of Lite- 

 rature and Science, is a correspondence extending from 1829 to 1834, 

 connected with the appointment of the late Dr. Turnbull Christie, to 

 investigate the natural resources and productions of this Presidency. 



Unhappily for the cause of science Dr. Christie did not live to 

 carry out the designs which induced him to solicit the employment 

 above mentioned. A brief interval of little more than six months 

 only intervened between his return to India and an attack of remit- 

 tent fever, which rapidly hurried him to the grave. The papers un- 

 der consideration, therefore, have not been found to contain much new 

 or valuable matter ; but we gladly embrace the opportunity, which 

 such an occasion affords us, of commemorating, in the pages of this 

 Journal, the name of one whose scientific knowledge and acquire- 

 ments were only equalled by his modesty and worth in private life, 

 and whose indefatigable zeal in the pursuit of knowledge would, had 

 his life been spared, have ensured him a more lasting place in the 

 records of science. 



Alexander Turnbull entered the medical service of the East In- 

 dia Company in September, 1822, and was first appointed to do duty, 

 as a probationer, with the Horse Artillery, St. Thomas' Mount. In 

 1823 he proceeded in medical charge of a detachment of young Of- 

 ficers from Wallajabad to Gooty; and subsequently in charge of de- 

 tails of Artillery to Secunderabad and Jaulnah, where he joined 

 the C Troop of Horse Artillery commanded by Captain Black. In 

 the same year he was present with that Troop at the disastrous affair 

 under the walls of Kittoor, in which all the other officers being kill- 

 ed or disabled, the charge of conducting the remains of the detach- 

 ment to Dharwar, devolved upon him. His conduct on this occasion 

 met with the approbation of his superiors, and a vacancy occurring 

 at the time, in the situation of medical officer to the Political Agency 

 in the Southern Mahratta country, he was nominated to succeed Dr. 

 G. Hamilton Bell, at his own request, supported by the earnest soli- 

 citation of all the residents at the station. 



Here he remained until December, 1827, when a severe attack of 

 illness compelled him to return to his native land for the recovery of 



