Clarke Abel
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Clarke Abel (c. 1789 – 24 November 1826) was a British surgeon and naturalist.
He accompanied Lord Amherst on his mission to China in 1816-17 as the embassy's chief medical
officer and naturalist, on the recommendation of Sir Joseph Banks. The mission was Britain's second unsuccessful
attempt to establish diplomatic relations with China and involved travelling to
the capital Pekin (Beijing) and the famous botanical gardens of Fa Tee near
Canton. While in China, Abel collected specimens and seeds of the plant that
carries his name, Abelia chinensis, described by Banks' botanical secretary Robert
Brown, "with friendly
partiality". However a shipwreck and an attack by pirates on the way back
to his home in Britain caused him to lose all of his specimens. Abel's Narrative
of a Journey in the Interior of China, 1818, gives a detailed account of
the collection's misfortunes. Fortunately, he had left some specimens with sir
George Staunton at Canton, who was kind enough to return them to him; living
specimens of the Chinese Abelia that we know today were introduced by Robert Fortune in 1844.[1]
In March, 1819 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society[2] He was also a member of the Geological Society.[3]
Abel was the first Western scientist to
report the presence of the orangutan on the island of Sumatra; the Sumatran Orangutan Pongo abelii Lesson 1827 is
named for him.[4] He went on to become the surgeon-in-chief to Lord Amherstwhen the earl was appointed Governor-general of India. Abel died at Cawnpore, India, 24 November 1826, aged 37.
The standard author abbreviation C.Abel is used to indicate this
individual as the author when citing a botanical name.[5]
References
- ^ Alice M. Coats, Garden Shrubs and Their Histories (1964)
1992, s.v. "Abelia".
- ^ "Library and Archive
Catalogue". Royal Society. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
- ^ According to the title page of his Narrative 1818.
- ^ Behlens, Bo, Watkins, Michael. and Grayson, Michael Eponym
Dictionary of Mammals, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009 ISBN 978-0-801893-04-9. p. 1-2)
- ^ "Author Query for
'C.Abel'". International Plant Names Index.
- Diana Wells, 100 Flowers and How They Got their Names,
(Chapel Hill: Algonquin), 1997.
Categories:
- Botanists with author
abbreviations
- 1780 births
- 1826 deaths
- British surgeons
- British naturalists
- Fellows of the Royal Society
- Members of the Linnean Society
of London
- Fellows of the Geological
Society of London
- People educated at Merchant
Taylors' School, Northwood
- British scientist stubs
- British medical biography
stubs
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Clarke Abel
