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Studies of Elephants by John Corse, a Surgeon of the British East India Company: An Analysis of the Formation and Transfer of Knowledge between India and Western Europe around 1800
Get PDFThis article explores the process of formation and transfer of knowledge around the year 1800 about elephants in Bengal, examining the research on elephants conducted by John Corse, a surgeon of the British East India Company. For this aim, this article focuses on Corse’s research interests and methods. In addition, the publication process of Corse’s research is analyzed.
The purpose of Corse’s research was, first, to reconsider the prevailing theories about the natural history of elephants in Western Europe. Second, it purposed to collect and share the knowledge to use elephants as means of transportation, and to exchange them as commodities and gifts. In other words, he collected knowledge and conducted experiments on elephants to contribute to the British East India Company’s commercial activities and colonial administration.
Corse employed the following methods for his research: First, he collected anecdotes about elephants and other local knowledge in Bengal, such as elephant classification. Second, he adopted anatomical observation. At that time, anatomical research on animals was being developed in Europe. Corse dissected a number of Bengal elephant’s heads and compared the specimens he prepared. Due to the opportunity to collect knowledge and observe specimens of elephants by himself during his stay in Bengal, he was able to use an empirical approach in his research.
Corse’s research findings were transferred to Western Europe from Bengal under the following process. Corse’s first paper was published in the Asiatick Researches of the Asiatic Society. Next, his research resulted in the publication of his second and third papers in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society of London, communicated Corse’s research to the Society.
Considering Corse’s research purpose and methods, this article concludes that his research was conducted under the influence of academic trends of natural history in the eighteenth century. Naturalists were attempting to develop a new classification system of animals according to anatomical and morphological analysis. Corse’s research entered the community of intellectuals beyond political and religious boundaries.journal articl
