Edward Balfour facts for kids
Edward Green Balfour (born September 6, 1813 – died December 8, 1889) was a Scottish surgeon. He was also a very important person in India who studied Eastern cultures and was one of the first environmentalists. He started museums in Madras and Bangalore. He also created a zoo in Madras. Edward Balfour helped people understand the importance of protecting forests and improving public health in India.
He wrote a huge book called Cyclopaedia of India. Many versions of this book were published after 1857. He also translated health books into Indian languages. Plus, he wrote about many different topics.
Contents
Edward Balfour's Life and Work
Edward Balfour was born in Scotland. He was the second son of Captain George Balfour, who worked for the East India Company. His older brother, George Balfour, later became a politician. Edward studied surgery at Edinburgh University. He became a surgeon in 1833.
In 1834, he sailed to India to work as an assistant surgeon. On his way, he visited Mauritius. There, he saw how much nature had been destroyed. This made him interested in climate change and environmental problems for his whole life.
Early Career in India
When he arrived in India in 1836, he worked as a surgeon for soldiers. He took care of European and Indian troops until 1862. He worked in places like Ahmednagar and Bellary. He was also a government agent and managed payments.
Edward Balfour was good at languages, especially Hindi and later Persian. This helped him get transferred to Indian soldier groups. He spent ten years traveling around southern India. The government often asked him to translate Hindustani and Persian.
In 1848, Balfour returned to Madras. He was put in charge of the governor's guards. This gave him more time for writing and other interests. He also worked for the local ruler, the nawab of Carnatic. From 1858 to 1861, he helped look into the nawab's debts. In 1850, he also worked at the Madras mint.
Family Life and Later Career
In 1852, he became a full surgeon. On May 24, he married Marion Matilda Agnes Gilchrist. She was the daughter of another surgeon in Madras. Marion helped him check the proofs for his big encyclopedia.
Edward Balfour worked as a deputy Surgeon-General in places like Burma and the Straits Settlements. From 1871 to 1876, he was the Surgeon-General. He led the Madras Medical Department.
Helping the Environment and Health
Edward Balfour saw environmental damage in Mauritius. He was very interested in how climate affected people's health. During his travels, he gathered lots of information about health and environmental issues.
In 1845, he published a report about keeping soldiers healthy in different climates. This made him an expert on public health. In 1849, he wrote about how trees affect a country's climate. He used real information to study problems and suggest solutions. He wrote about topics like cholera and why soldiers were leaving the army.
Water and Forests
His medical training taught him how important water was for health. Balfour understood that water was limited. He realized this was a big public health problem. Based on what he saw in Mauritius, he warned that cutting down forests could lead to famine. He wrote about the connection between water and forest cover.
The East India Company listened to his warnings. They started plans to protect forests soon after 1840. His reports, along with those from Hugh Francis Cleghorn, led to the creation of the Madras Forest Department.
Using Data to Understand Health
Balfour used statistics a lot to study the health of soldiers. He showed that Europeans were healthier in the hills of India. He also kept careful records of visitors to the museum. He noticed that a live orangutan brought huge crowds. This helped him get support for his plan to create a zoo. When the zoo opened, he noted it attracted more people than famous places like the British Museum.
The Role of Women in Health
Edward Balfour believed women were very important for public health. He personally translated a book on childbirth into Urdu. He also arranged for it to be translated into Kannada, Tamil, and Telugu. He wanted to provide textbooks for Indian medical students. He also wanted to improve the skills of local midwives.
He tried to convince the government to offer medical education in Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam languages, but he didn't succeed. He also worked to encourage European women to become doctors in India. He thought women could move more freely within certain parts of Indian society. This effort worked. In 1875, Mary Scharlieb became the first woman to join the Madras Medical College.
Museums, Nature, and Eastern Studies
Balfour loved collecting things and educating people. He started the Government Central Museum in Madras in 1850. He was its first leader. By 1879, the museum was getting 180,000 visitors each year. Women were encouraged to visit on special days.
He kept records of visitors and studied how they reacted to the exhibits. He saw a big increase in visitors when a live tiger cub and leopard were kept in the natural history section. This led him to suggest a zoological garden. In 1856, a small collection of animals was started. This grew into the Madras Zoological Gardens.
Balfour strongly believed that the museum should be "open to all classes." He wanted it to have items that would "amuse and instruct all classes." At first, the museum showed items important for business, like rocks and wood. Later, it started getting items related to history and different cultures.
He encouraged people to donate items to the museum. He said, "every specimen that may be sent will be acceptable." People could send items for free by mail if they were marked for the museum. He thought it was wrong to charge an entry fee because the public was donating exhibits. By 1853, the museum had over 19,830 items, mostly from the public.
In 1866, he started the Bangalore Museum. He also helped with big exhibitions in London, Paris, and Vienna.
Languages and Knowledge
Balfour was very interested in languages. He spent a lot of time learning local languages. In 1850, he published a book of poems called Gul-Dastah. He also set up a public library in Madras. He translated many works from Persian to English. He also translated English works (like on astronomy) into Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu.
Cyclopaedia of India and Other Books
Edward Balfour collected a lot of information about many parts of life in India. This led to his most famous book, The Encyclopaedia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia, Commercial, Industrial, and Scientific. It was first published in 1857. Later versions were called the Cyclopaedia of India.
This huge book grew over time. It included research from other experts. It became a five-volume work between 1871 and 1883. Balfour also wrote the first book about farm pests in India.
After he retired and moved back to England in 1876, Balfour kept writing about India. He openly disagreed with some of the ways the British ruled India. His brother, George Balfour, also spoke out against taxes in India.
Honours and Ways He Is Remembered
Edward Balfour left India in 1876 after 42 years. People from Hindu, Muslim, and European communities in Madras honored him. A portrait of him was placed in the Government Central Museum. He received an extra annual pension for his great work.
In 1891, the Madras University created a Balfour memorial gold medal. This medal was given to encourage women to study medicine.
Selected Works
- The agricultural pests of India, and of eastern and southern Asia, vegetable and animal, injurious to man and his products (1887)
- The Vydian and the Hakim, what do they know of medicine? (1875)
- Medical Hints to the People of India (1875)
- The Timber Trees, Timber and Fancy Woods, as also, the Forests (1862)
- Birds of Eastern and Southern Asia (1858)
- Volume 1 (A-G), Volume 2 (H-N), Volume 3. + Via HathiTrust
- Catalogue of the Government Central Museum (1855)
- Cholera (Are there towns or villages in India where cholera has never appeared from the period of its first outbreak in 1817?) being a series of letters from Assistant Surgeon Edward Balfour. Fort St. George Gazette Press. (1852)
- Remarks on the Abstract Tables of the Men Discharged from the Military Service of the East India Company. (1851)
- Statistics of cholera (1849)
- Observations on the means of preserving the health of troops by selecting healthy localities for their Cantonments. London (1845)
