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{{Use British English|date=September 2016}}
[[File:JosephFayrer.jpg|thumb]]
'''Sir Joseph Fayrer, 1st Baronet''' [[Royal Society of London|FRS]] [[FRSE]] FRCS FRCP KCSI LLD (6 December 1824 – 21 May 1907) was a British [[physician]] who served as Surgeon General in India. He is noted for his writings on [[medicine]], work on public health and his studies particularly on the treatment of snakebite, in [[India]]. He was also involved in official investigation on cholera, in which he did not accept the idea, proposed by [[Robert Koch]], of germs as the cause of cholera.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Harrison, M |year=1992| title=Tropical Medicine in Nineteenth-Century India.|journal= The British Journal for the History of Science|volume=25| issue=3|pages=299–318|doi=10.1017/S0007087400029137|pmid=11623058|doi-access=free}}</ref>

==Early life==
[[File:Thanatophidia.jpg|thumb|Cover of his book on venomous snakes|alt=|298x298px]]
The second son of Robert John Fayrer (1788–1869), a Commander in the Royal Navy and wife Agnes Wilkinson (d. 1861) he was born at [[Plymouth]], [[Devon]].<ref name=obit>{{cite journal|url=https://archive.org/stream/transactions47londgoog#page/n195/mode/2up |author=Anon ("K.M.")|year=1907|title=Obituary Notice - Surgeon-General Joseph Fayrer, Bart., K.C.S.I., M.D., L.L.D., F.R.C.S., F.R.C.P. |journal= Transactions of the Epidemiological Society|volume=26|issue=1906–07|page=176|access-date=25 June 2017}}</ref> Fayrer's father was in charge of steamships after his retirement from the navy. The family lived for a time at Haverbrack, Westmorland where Joseph became acquainted with [[William Wordsworth]], Hartley Coleridge and [[John Wilson (Scottish writer)|John Wilson]]. Joseph studied some engineering in 1840 and joined as a midshipman and in 1843 he travelled with his father to Bermuda. An outbreak of yellow fever made him interested in medicine. He joined to study medicine at [[Charing Cross Hospital]], [[London]] in 1844 and his fellow students included [[William Guyer Hunter]] and [[Thomas Henry Huxley]]. He became a house surgeon at Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital in his second year and became MRCS in 1847. He was in 1847 appointed medical officer of [[HMS Victory|HMS ''Victory'']]. He then resigned his commission and travelled around Europe along with [[Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, 3rd Earl of Mount Edgcumbe]], in the course of which he saw fighting at [[Palermo]] and [[Rome]]. He then resumed his study of medicine at Rome and received an MD in 1849.<ref name=dnb/>

==India==
[[File:"Sir Joeseph Fayrer, Bart. K.C.S.I. M.D. F.R.S." "NE TENTES AUT PERFICE" bookplate detail, from- Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, for January 1868 (IA b28709366) (page 2 crop).jpg|thumb|Personal [[bookplate]] of "Sir Joeseph Fayrer, Bart. K.C.S.I. M.D. F.R.S." "NE TENTES AUT PERFICE" from his copy, ''Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal'' of 1868 ]]
Appointed an assistant surgeon in the Indian Medical Service of [[Bengal]] in 1850, he was posted at Chinsura, Cherrapunji and Dacca. He saw action as a field surgeon during the [[Second Anglo-Burmese War|Burmese campaign of 1852]]. For his service, Lord Dalhousie made him political assistant and Residency surgeon at [[Lucknow]] in 1853. He married Bethia Mary, daughter of Brigadier General Andrew Spens at Lucknow, on 4 October 1855. During the [[Indian Mutiny]], his home in Lucknow became a hospital as well as a fortress. It was at his home that Sir [[Henry Montgomery Lawrence]] died. His wife and child survived and they were relieved on 17 November 1857. He left India on furlough in 1858 and obtained an MD from the [[University of Edinburgh Medical School]] in March 1859, presenting the thesis ''"On amputation at the hip-joint and excision of the head of the femur".''<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Fayrer|first=Joseph|date=1859|title=On amputation at the hip-joint and excision of the head of the femur|url=https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/31586|language=en}}</ref> Returning to India in 1859, he became professor of surgery at the [[Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata|Medical College of Calcutta]], and was briefly a personal surgeon to [[Richard Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo|Lord Mayo]] in 1869 and when the [[Edward VII of the United Kingdom|Prince of Wales]] made his tour in India he was appointed to accompany him as physician. He was later appointed Physician Extraordinary to King [[Edward VII]] in 1901.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27300 |date=29 March 1901 |page=2194}}</ref> Returning to England in 1872, he acted as president of the Medical Board of the India office from 1874 to 1895, president of the [[Epidemiological Society of London|Epidemiological Society]] for 1879-1881 and on 7 February 1896 he was created a [[baronet]].<ref name=obit/><ref name=dnb>{{cite ODNB|author= H.P. Cholmeley, rev. W. F. Bynum|title=Fayrer, Sir Joseph, first baronet (1824–1907)| id=33099 }}</ref> Fayrer held a position against the germ theory of cholera which had led to the idea of quarantine (which he considered as evil) and preferred the idea that disease was restricted to particular locations, with factors such as air, water, and weather being responsible.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Watts|first=Sheldon|date=2001|title=From Rapid Change to Stasis: Official Responses to Cholera in British-Ruled India and Egypt: 1860 to c. 1921|journal=Journal of World History|volume=12|issue=2|pages=321–374|doi=10.1353/jwh.2001.0047|jstor=20078912|pmid=20039497|s2cid=36382485|issn=1045-6007}}</ref>
[[File:FayrerHome.jpg|thumb|left|Fayrer's home in [[Lucknow]] (after 1857)]]
He was President of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1867 and proposed a scheme for a zoological garden in Calcutta. This was finally opened by the Prince of Wales in 1875. He took considerable interest in the wild animals and wrote a book on the tiger and procured living specimens of the [[pygmy hog]]s for the Zoological Society of London.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Porcula salvania (Hodgson)|author=Fayrer, J|journal=Nature| year=1882| page=80|doi=10.1038/026080c0|volume=26|issue=656|bibcode=1882Natur..26R..80F|s2cid=4117638|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1429265|doi-access=free}}</ref> He became a fellow of the [[Royal Society]] in 1877, wrote much on subjects connected with the practice of medicine in India, and was especially known for his studies on the [[poisonous snake]]s of that country and on the physiological effects produced by their venom (''Thanatophidia of India'', 1872).<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Hawgood|first=Barbara J.|date=1996|title=Sir Joseph Fayrer MD FRS (1824–1907) Indian Medical Service: Snakebite and mortality in British India|journal=Toxicon|language=en|volume=34|issue=2|pages=171–182|doi=10.1016/0041-0101(95)00118-2|pmid=8711752}}</ref> He researched snake venom along with [[Lauder Brunton|Thomas Lauder Brunton]] in 1867 with assistance of Dr F. C. Webb. The book was printed by the Indian government and illustrated by artists from the Calcutta School of Art. In 1879, he spoke on ''The progress of epidemiology in India'' (published in 1880). In 1900 he published his autobiography, ''Recollections of my Life''. Fayrer knew Persian, several Indian languages and Italian. He also took an interest in anthropology and interacted with [[Thomas Henry Huxley]] on the topic. He proposed that an Ethnological Congress be held by the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1866. Although this exhibition was not held, the idea of an Ethnographic survey was realized a few years later by [[Herbert Hope Risley]].

After retirement he took an interest in deep-sea fishing and yachting. He died at his home, Belfield, Wood Lane, [[Falmouth, Cornwall]], on 21 May 1907.<ref name=dnb/>

==Honours and arms==
Fayrer was appointed a [[Companion of the Order of the Star of India]] (CSI) in 1868,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=23452 |date=22 December 1868 |page=6775}}</ref> and promoted to [[Knight Commander]] (KCSI) in 1876.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=24303 |date=7 March 1876 |page=1787}}</ref> In 1876 Fayrer was incharge of the health of the Prince of Wales on his visit to India.<ref name=":0" />

Sir Joseph was created a [[baronet]] ''of Devonshire Street in the parish of [[St Marylebone]] in the [[County of London]]'' on 11 February 1896.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=26709 |date=14 February 1896 |page=858}}</ref>

{{Infobox COA wide
|escutcheon = Argent on a bend inverted Sable between in chief an Eastern crown Gules and in base the staff of AEsculapius Proper enfiled with a like crown three horse-shoes Or.
|crest = In front of a sword erect Proper pommel and hilt Gold a horse-shoe Or between two wings Gules.
|motto = Ne Tentes Aut Perfice <ref>{{cite book|title=Burke's Peerage |date=1959}}</ref>}}

==Family==
On 4 October 1855, he married Bethia Mary Spens. They had six sons and two daughters.
He was succeeded as second baronet by [[Sir Joseph Fayrer, 2nd Baronet]].<ref>{{cite DNB12|wstitle=Fayrer, Joseph|first=Henry Patrick |last=Cholmeley}}</ref>

His daughter Bethia Marion Fayrer (1857-1892) married William Dobrees Herries and is buried in [[Canongate Kirkyard]] in [[Edinburgh]].

==Select Bibliography==
* Fayrer, Joseph, Sir (1866). [https://archive.org/details/b20416350 "Clinical surgery in India"], John Churchill, London.
* Fayrer, Joseph, Sir (1872). [https://archive.org/details/TheThanatophidiaOfIndiaBeingADescriptionOfTheVenomousSnakesOfThe "The Thanatophidia of India: Being a Description of the Venomous Snakes of the Indian Peninsula, with an Account of the Influence of Their Poison on Life and a Series of Experiments"], pub. J. & A. Churchill, London.
* Fayrer, Joseph, Sir (1873). [https://archive.org/details/b24400348 "Clinical and pathological observations in India"], pub. J. & A. Churchill, London.
* Fayrer, Joseph, Sir (1873). [https://archive.org/stream/b28709469#page/n0/mode/2up "European child-life in Bengal"], pub. J. & A. Churchill, London.
* Brunton, T. Lauder, Sir & Fayrer, Joseph, Sir (1873) [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/178669#page/3/mode/1up "On the nature and physiological action of the poison of Naja tripudians and other Indian venomous snakes" ], in Proceedings of the Royal Society, No 145 (1873).
* Fayrer, Joseph, Sir (1875). [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/118334#page/9/mode/1up "The royal tiger of Bengal, his life and death"], pub. J. & A. Churchill, London.
* Fayrer, Joseph, Sir (1888). [http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/34631960R 's ''The natural history and epidemiology of cholera : being the annual oration of the Medical Society of London, May 7, 1888''], pub. J. & A. Churchill, London.
* Fayrer, Joseph, Sir (1894). [https://archive.org/details/b24764255 "On preservation of health in India"], Macmillan & Co., London.
* Fayrer, Joseph, Sir (1900). [https://archive.org/details/recollectionsofm1900fayr "Recollections of my life"], pub. William Blackwood & sons, London.

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
{{wikisource author-inline}}
*[http://aleph0.clarku.edu/huxley/letters/66.html Huxley correspondence archive]
*[http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/34631960R Joseph Fayrer's ''The natural history and epidemiology of cholera'' (London, 1888)]
*[https://archive.org/details/recollectionsofm1900fayr Recollections of my life (1900)]
*[https://archive.org/details/TheThanatophidiaOfIndiaBeingADescriptionOfTheVenomousSnakesOfThe The Thanatophidia of India (1872)]
*[https://archive.org/details/cu31924031176435 The royal tiger of Bengal, his life and death (1875)]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fayrer, Joseph}}
[[Category:1824 births]]
[[Category:1907 deaths]]
[[Category:Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom|Fayrer, Joseph, 1st Baronet]]
[[Category:19th-century English medical doctors]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Indian Medical Service officers]]
[[Category:Alumni of Charing Cross Medical School]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Presidents of The Asiatic Society]]
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Star of India]]

Joseph Fayrer - Revision history

Bot at 00:07, 18 March 2022