Beginning as a symptomatic reading of Arthur Conan Doyle’s use of a fictional African root poison, the Radix pedis diaboli, in “The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot” (1907), and Indian poisoned darts in The Sign of the Four (1890), this article makes some general comments on the history of colonial tropical toxicology, focusing on the Indian aconite ( Aconitum ferox) and its roots ( Radix aconiti indica). Arguably, Doyle had aconite in his mind while creating the fictional African root poison. Victorian toxicologists, who were deeply interested in Indian poisons, created stereotypes of India as congeries of melancholy and culturally backward, industrially primitive, and morally corrupt societies. Doyle’s fictional poisons were influenced by a normative cultural bias that saw tropical pharmakons like aconite with an Orientalizing gaze. By shifting the geographical focus from Doyle’s “Ubangi country” to nineteenth-century India, I draw attention to a larger spectrum of tropical toxicology. The colonial zeal to taxonomize the properties and utility of tropical pharmakons obsessively revolved around their toxic uses as criminal weapons or accidental killers, while marginalizing the medicinal uses that the plant had been historically put to by ancient Indian physicians.

Aconite in Victorian Tropical Toxicology

Abstract:Beginning as a symptomatic reading of Arthur Conan Doyle's use of a fictional African root poison, the Radix pedis diaboli, in "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot" (1907), and Indian poisoned darts in The Sign of the Four (1890), this article makes some general comments on the history of colonial tropical toxicology, focusing on the Indian aconite (Aconitum ferox) and its roots (Radix aconiti indica). Arguably, Doyle had aconite in his mind while creating the fictional African root poison. Victorian toxicologists, who were deeply interested in Indian poisons, created stereotypes of India as congeries of melancholy and culturally backward, industrially primitive, and morally corrupt societies. Doyle's fictional poisons were influenced by a normative cultural bias that saw tropical pharmakons like aconite with an Orientalizing gaze. By shifting the geographical focus from Doyle's "Ubangi country" to nineteenth-century India, I draw attention to a larger spectrum of tropical toxicology. The colonial zeal to taxonomize the properties and utility of tropical pharmakons obsessively revolved around their toxic uses as criminal weapons or accidental killers, while marginalizing the medicinal uses that the plant had been historically put to by ancient Indian physicians.Résumé:Cet article s'ouvre par une lecture symptomatique de l'usage fait par Arthur Conan Doyle d'un poison racinaire africain fictif, le Radix pedis diaboli, dans « Le pied du diable » (1907), et de dards indiens empoisonnés dans Le Signe des quatre (1890). On y propose quelques commentaires généraux sur l'histoire de la toxicologie tropicale coloniale, en accordant une attention particulière à l'aconit féroce, dit aussi aconit de l'Inde (Aconitum ferox), et à sa racine (Radix aconiti indica). Il est très possible que Doyle ait eu l'aconit en tête quand il a inventé son poison africain. Les toxicologues de l'époque victorienne, qui s'intéressaient vivement aux poisons indiens, avaient répandu des préjugés sur l'Inde qui en faisaient un amalgame de nostalgie et de milieux culturellement attardés, industriellement primitifs et moralement corrompus. Les poisons fictifs de Doyle témoignent d'un préjugé culturel normatif qui perçoit la pharmacopée tropicale, dont l'aconit, à travers un filtre orientalisant. En déplaçant l'axe géographique du « pays oubangui » de Doyle à l'Inde du 19e siècle, j'élargis le spectre de l'attention accordée à la toxicologie tropicale. Le zèle taxonomique colonial qui s'appliquait à classifier les propriétés et l'utilité des pharmacopées tropicales était obsédé par la toxicité qui en faisait des armes de crime ou la cause d'accidents mortels, et marginalisait les usages médicinaux qu'en a faits la médecine indienne traditionnelle à travers l'histoire.

Aconite in Victorian Tropical Toxicology: What You Wanted to Know about the Indian Poison but Were Afraid to Ask Sherlock Holmes

Modern medical education began in Bengal with the establishment of Calcutta Medical College (CMC) in 1835. Soon it became an important centre for medical education and research in India. Chunilal Bose (1861–1930), an alumnus of CMC, worked in his alma mater as the Chemical Examiner of Bengal for more than three decades and conducted pioneering researches on toxins and poisons, food poisoning, food adulteration, diabetes, small pox, forensic science, effects of narcotics etc. His research publications appeared in reputed journals such as British Medical Journal, Transactions of the Chemical Society of London, The Indian Medical Gazette, and Calcutta Medical Journal etc. Bose was also instrumental in passing the Indian Poisons Act (1904) and in creating a public awareness against consumption of narcotics. Bose was an able science communicator of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Bengal and extensively wrote and lectured in a simple language, both in Bengali and English, on the subjects of public health and hygiene, general science and history of science that were connected to the wellbeing of the common people, with an intention of creating science awareness and scientific temper in the society. Honours and awards showered upon him during his lifetime, but Bose’s important contributions to medical sciences and science popularization were less discussed by the historians of science, as the focus generally remained on his more illustrious contemporaries. In the course of time, Chunilal Bose became a nearly forgotten scientist and a science communicator. His 160th birth anniversary was observed in 2021. 

Dr. Chunilal Bose: a forgotten scientist and a science communicator

The article seeks to problematize the relationship between law and medicine by studying the tensions which accompanied the emergence of medical jurisprudence in British India during the second half of the nineteenth century. In a context of British government apprehension as to the legality of its rule in India, the article focusses on official concerns about the unmonitored circulation of toxic substances, particularly arsenic, which culminated in the Poisons Act (1904). The article investigates the role of toxic substances in historical narratives of expertise, and also traces the emergence of the idea of an autonomous native society in colonial and medical/forensic discourse, locating its articulation in exchanges between British and native salaried experts.

https://journals.openedition.org/chs/pdf/2135

Shrimoy Roy Chaudhury

Papers

Toxic matters: Medical Jurisprudence and the Making of the Indian Poisons Act (1904)