Edgar ThurstonCIE (1855– 12 October 1935) was the British Superintendent at the
Madras Government Museum from 1885 to 1908 who contributed to research studies in the fields of
zoology,
ethnology and
botany of India, and later also published his works at the museum. Thurston was educated in medicine and lectured in
anatomy at the
Madras Medical College while simultaneously holding a senior position at the museum. His early works were on
numismatics and geology, and these were later followed by researches in
anthropology and
ethnography. He succeeded Frederick S. Mullaly as the Superintendent of Ethnography for the
Madras Presidency.[2]
Early life
Edgar Thurston was the son of Charles Bosworth Thurston of
Kew, London. Schooled at
Eton College, he then studied medicine at
King's College, London, qualifying as
LRCP in 1877. He worked as a medical officer in
Kent County Lunatic Asylum and became a curator of the museum at King's College before joining the Madras Museum in 1885 as a superintendent.[3]
Ethnography and geography
Whereas early European ideas on
phrenology were applied to identify mental traits of individuals, advocates of
scientific racism used what they considered to be more refined
anthropometric measurements to identify
castes. Thurston was one such person. He believed that intelligence was inversely proportional to the breadth of the nose and claimed that he scrutinised this as well as handwriting when recruiting clerks in his office. He gave lectures to the students of the Madras University and sometimes to the Madras Police on practical anthropology during the 1890s, and he trained the Madras Police in the use of anthropometry for criminal identification. The
Bertillon system had already been incorporated in the
Bengal and Madras Police departments by the 1890s and Thurston's training was intended to help the police identify membership of what were then termed as "
criminal castes".[2][4]
In 1901, Thurston was appointed to the Ethnographic Survey of India project, established at that time following the success of
Herbert Hope Risley's Ethnographic Survey of Bengal.[5] Risley was an adherent to the theories of scientific racism and had been appointed as director of Ethnology in India. Thurston worked as a part of this project to collect accurate anthropometric measurements. These included a number of measurements of the skull and derived indices or proportions such as the
nasal index.[6] He did this work alongside his role as superintendent of the Madras Museum, a position that he did not leave until 1908.[7]
Among other published works, Thurston wrote the seven volumes of Castes and Tribes of Southern India, published in 1909 as part of the Ethnographic Survey of India. In that work he was assisted by
K. Rangachari, a colleague from the Madras museum who had also assisted him in a 1906 ethnographic study, Ethnographic Notes in Southern India. Rangachari had supplied most of the forty photographs used in this earlier study.[5] The September 1910 edition of Nature described the 1909 publication as
a monumental record of the varied phases of south Indian tribal life, the traditions, manners and customs of people. Though in some respects it may be corrected or supplemented by future research it will long retain its value as an example of out-door investigation, and will remain a veritable mine of information, which will be of value.[5]
Thurston also authored The Madras Presidency, with Mysore Coorg, and the associated States, being the third volume of the four-volume series "
Provincial Geographies of India" which was published between 1913–23 by the
Cambridge University Press under the editorship of
Thomas Henry Holland which included physical information and ethnographic notes.[8]
Botany and zoology
Thurston made numerous collections of plant and animals specimens, many of which were sent to the
British Museum.[9] In the late 1880s he was involved in studies on pearl fishing in the Gulf of Mannar. On a visit to Europe he sought to find electric lights that would work at a depth of 20 fathoms so as to assist in pearl harvesting.[10] Some species have been named after him, including the marine organisms Manaria thurstoni (E.A. Smith, 1906), Sepia thurstoni (W. Adam & W. J. Rees, 1966), Mobula thurstoni (Lloyd, 1908), and Ecteinascidia thurstoni (Herdman, 1890).[11] Also, a species of Indian snake, Gerrhopilus thurstoni (
Boettger, 1890), is named in his honor.[12]
Aside from his role at the Madras Museum, Thurston was for some time Honorary Secretary to the now-defunct Fine Arts Society of Madras and was influential in promoting the artistic works of
Raja Ravi Varma and his brother
C. Raja Raja Varma.[14]
Later life
Thurston was awarded the
Kaisar-i-Hind Medal, first class, on 26 June 1902.[15] He was made C.I.E. in 1909. He retired to England and spent his winters at
Penzance where he studied the local plants and regularly hosted a New Year party for the local botanists. He died on 12 October 1935 at Penzance.[3]
^Bates, Crispin (1995). "Race, Caste and Tribe in Central India: the early origins of Indian anthropometry". In Robb, Peter (ed.).
The Concept of Race in South Asia. Delhi: Oxford University Press. pp. 238–240.
ISBN978-0-19-563767-0. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
^Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp.
ISBN978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Thurston", p. 265).