Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography/Falconer, Hugh

​FALCONER, Hugh, M.D., a distinguished naturalist. He was educated for the medical profession at the university of Edinburgh, where he took the degree of M.D. He went out as assistant-surgeon in the service of the East India Company, and whilst in India became distinguished for his researches in geology and botany. His geological researches were made in company with Sir Thomas Proby Cautley; and the papers containing the results of their discoveries have been written conjointly. These researches are principally confined to the discovery of an immense number of fossil remains in the Sivalik hills of the Sub-Himalayan mountains. Separate papers on the Sivatherium Hippopotamus, Camel Tiger, Anoplotherium, and Colossochelys (a gigantic tortoise) were published in the proceedings of the geological and other societies. A resumé of these researches, with much additional matter, was published in the Fauna Antiqua Sivalensis, or fossil zoology of the Sivalik hills. In 1845 Dr. Falconer was appointed superintendent of the East India Company's botanical gardens at Calcutta. In this position he remained for a few years, and then returned to England to cultivate the science of palæontology, which he much enriched by his contributions. He died January 31, 1865.—E. L.