Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Anderson, James (d.1809)

by no contributor recorded

ANDERSON, JAMES, M.D. (d. 1809), botanist, was physician-general of the East India Company at Madras. It appears from Dodwell and Milne's list of medical officers in India that James Anderson was assistant-surgeon in 1765, surgeon in 1786, member of the medical board in 1800, and died 5 Aug. 1809. Anderson gave an account in a series of letters to Sir Joseph Banks (published at Madras 1781) of an insect resembling the cochineal, which he had discovered in Madras. Gardens, superintended by Anderson, were cultivated for these insects, and when the die obtained from them did not answer, other insects were introduced from Brazil. Anderson afterwards attempted to introduce the cultivation of silk into Madras, and paid attention to other plants of commercial value, such as the sugar-cane, coffee plant, American cotton, and European apple. He published several series of letters upon these topics at Madras in 1789–96. He also published a paper on the minerals of Coromandel in the ‘Phœnix,’ 1797; and ‘A Journal of the Establishment of Napal and Tuna for the Prevention or Cure of Scurvy,’ &c., Madras, 1808.

[Royle's Essay on Productive Resources of India, pp. 57–63, 137, 142, &c.; Brit. Mus. Cat.]