earth science

John McClelland (doctor)

John McClelland (doctor) is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand John McClelland (doctor) rather than just read about it. In short: John McClelland or M'Clelland (1805 – 31 July 1883) was a British medical doctor with interests in natural history, who worked for the East India Company in India and Burma. He served as a temporary curator of the museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal just before a permanent curator was found in Edward Blyth.

Key takeaways

John McClelland (doctor) belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
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Connect John McClelland (doctor) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of John McClelland (doctor) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

John McClelland or M'Clelland (1805 – 31 July 1883) was a British medical doctor with interests in natural history, who worked for the East India Company in India and Burma. He served as a temporary curator of the museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal just before a permanent curator was found in Edward Blyth. McClelland is thought to have been born in Ireland, studied medicine and was admitted member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1828. He entered the service of the East India Company in the Bengal Medical Service on 7th April 1830. In 1835 he was sent on a mission (Tea Committee) to identify if tea could be grown in north-eastern India along with Nathaniel Wallich and William Griffith. This mission ran into troubles with the members of the group clashing with each other. McClelland was appointed 1836 as the secretary of the "Coal Committee", the forerunner of the Geological Survey of India (GSI), formed to explore possibilities to exploit Indian coal. He was the first to propose hiring professional geologists for the task. He was also involved in surveys of forests and his reports led to the establishment of the Forest Department in India. In 1838 he was a temporary curator of the museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. In 1839 he was offered the permanent post of curator of the museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal but he rejected the offer because he did not accept the terms of two hours daily attendance at the museum and to produce monthly reports of progress. At the time he was deputy apothecary, assistant opium examiner as well as secretary to the coal and iron committee with the first position requiring his presence in office from eleven to four daily. The curator position was then filled by Edward Blyth. McClelland quit the Asiatic Society of Bengal and founded and edited the Calcutta Journal of Natural History, and Miscellany of the Arts and Sciences in India which ran from 1841 to 1847. McClelland was influenced by the quinarian system. McClelland also served as an interim superintendent of the Calcutta Botanical Garden from 1846 to 1847. He was superintendent of forests in lower Burma from 1852 to 1856. In 1860 he became junior inspector general and in 1862, following the retirement of John Forsyth, he was made Inspector General and he retired on 24th November 1865. He died at Hastings and was buried at St. Leonards-on-Sea. The grave stone also records the death of his wife Sophie, "wife of Henry Swaine and Widow of the above, John McClelland, Who died April 5, 1885, Aged 44 years."

Work and legacy McClelland's major botanical contribution was his editing of the work of William Griffith which was published posthumously as Notulae ad plantas asiaticas. In his original work as an ichthyologist he described many species and several genera of fish, among them Schistura. The Spotted codlet fish Bregmaceros mcclellandi W. Thompson, 1840 is named after him. McClelland is commemorated in the name of the mountain bulbul, Ixos mcclellandii and a species of snake, Sinomicrurus macclellandi.

Writings McClelland J (1839). "Indian Cyprinidae". Asiatic Researches 19: 217–471.

References

Further reading Desmond, Ray (1994). The European Discovery of the Indian Flora. Oxford University Press.

External links

Darwin correspondence Gravestone and notes Sketch of the medical topography, or climate and soils, of Bengal and the N.W. Provinces (1859)

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John McClelland (doctor)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John McClelland (doctor) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to John McClelland (doctor) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about John McClelland (doctor) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of John McClelland (doctor)

In research: John McClelland (doctor) appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses John McClelland (doctor) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: John McClelland (doctor) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1805 births, 1883 deaths, 19th-century British businesspeople, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John McClelland (doctor) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study John McClelland (doctor) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what John McClelland (doctor) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain John McClelland (doctor) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is John McClelland (doctor) in simple terms?

Why does John McClelland (doctor) matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study John McClelland (doctor)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on John McClelland (doctor).