288 
EDITORIAL. 
2d.  He  had  been  for  many  weeks  in  ill  health,  but  his  death  was  sudden 
at  last.  Dr.  Eoyle  was  educated  in  London  for  the  medical  profession, 
and  was  a  pupil  of  the  late  Dr.  Anthony  Todd  Thomson,  from  whom  he 
seems  to  have  acquired  that  taste  for  the  study  of  botany  which  after- 
wards distinguished  him.  Having  passed  his  medical  examinations,  he 
entered  into  the  service  of  the  East  India  Company,  and  was  for  many 
years  stationed  in  the  Himalaya,  where  he  had  great  opportunities  afford- 
ed him  of  studying,  not  only  the  plants  of  that  district,  but  of  the  whole 
empire.  He  was  appointed  superintendent  of  the  East  India  Company's 
Botanic  Garden  at  Saharempore — a  position  which  gave  him  the  largest 
possible  opportunity  for  studying  the  indigenous  Flora  of  Hindustan.  The 
result  of  his  labors  was  given  to  the  world  in  a  magnificent  work,  entitled 
"  Illustrations  of  the  Botany  and  other  branches  of  the  Natural  History 
of  the  Himalayan  Mountains,  and  of  the  Flora  of  Cashmere."  This  work 
was  published,  in  folio,  with  plates,  in  1833,  and  at  once  gave  to  the  au- 
thor a  European  reputation  as  a  botanist.  In  this  work  Dr.  Royle  gave 
the  result  of  his  researches  into  the  medical  properties  of  a  large  number 
of  plants,  as  well  as  the  history  of  drugs  used  in  Europe,  whose  origin  was 
unknown.  In  1837  he  published  an  essay  "  On  the  Antiquity  of  Hindoo 
Medicine,"  a  work  displaying  much  learning  and  research.  On  the  open- 
ing of  King's  College,  London,  as  a  medical  school,  the  knowledge  of  drugs 
and  plants  possessed  by  Dr.  Royle  pointed  him  out  as  a  fit  person  to  hold 
the  chair  of  Materia  Medica,  a  position  which  he  filled  till  the  year  1856. 
Whilst  lecturing  on  this  subject  he  published  his  "  Manual  of  Materia 
Medica,"  a  book  which  is  now  used  as  a  text-book  on  the  subject  in  medi- 
cal schools.  His  extensive  knowledge  of  the  natural  history  of  India 
made  him  a  valuable  contributor  to  the  periodical  scientific  literature, 
and  he  was  a  contributor  to  the  "  Penny  Cyclopaedia  "  and  Kitto's  "  Diction- 
ary of  the  Bible,"  and  other  works.  He  took  an  active  interest  in  promo- 
ting a  knowledge  of  the  material  resources  of  India ;  and,  in  1840,  pro- 
duced a  work  which,  perhaps,  will  be  read  with  more  interest  now  than 
when  it  was  published,  "On  the  Productive  Resources  of  India."  During 
the  period  of  the  Russian  war,  Dr.  Royle  drew  attention  to  India  as  a 
source  of  the  various  fibrous  materials  used  in  the  manufacture  of  cordage, 
clothing,  paper,  &c,  by  a  lecture  delivered  before  the  Society  of  Arts  in 
1854.  This  lecture  was  afterwards  expanded  into  a  valuable  work  "  On 
the  Fibrous  Plants  of  India,"  which  was  published  in  1855.  In  the  preface 
to  this  work,  he  announced  that  he  was  employed  in  a  general  work  on 
"  The  Commercial  Products  of  India,"  which,  we  believe,  has  not  yet  ap- 
peared. Dr.  Royle  was  a  Member  of  the  British  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science,  at  whose  meetings  he  often  read  papers,  two  of 
which  deserve  especial  attention — one  "On  the  Cultivation  of  Cotton," 
and  another  "  On  the  Cultivation  of  Tea  in  the  East  Indies."  He  took 
an  active  interest  in  the  last  subject,  and  his  efforts  have  been  attended 
with  complete  success  ;  as  tea,  rivalling  that  from  China,  is  now  pro- 
duced in  abundance  in  the  Himalaya.  For  a  short  time  he  held  the  office 
of  Secretary  to  the  British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science. 
He  took  an  active  interest  in  the  development  of  the  plan  of  the  Great 
Exhibition  of  1851  ;  and  the  success  which  attended  the  exhibition  of  the 
Department  of  Indian  Products  was  due,  in  a  great  measure,  to  his  efforts. 
He  was  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal,  Linnaean  and  Geological  Societies,  and  at 
the  time  of  his  death  held  an  appointment  in  connection  with  the  East 
India  Company  in  London. 
