HELENUS SCOTT M.D.
Scott, Helenus by Misc
A collection of information
Helenus Scott was born in Dundee, Scotland in 1758. His baptism was recorded on the 28th August 1758 in the Parish of Auchterhouse, County of Aberdeen in Scotland.Auchterhouse is 9 miles/14.5 Kilometres, North-West of Aberdeen Helenus’ parents were David Scott, a clergyman, and Mary Mitchell. Both of his parent’s names have been given to many descendants. In the autobiographical introduction to his book, “The Adventures Of A Rupee”, Helenus pays tribute to his father, saying “The father had genius; and it was the only inheritance he could pass to his son”.
The book, “an entertaining Romance, styled ‘The Adventures of a Rupee,’ he sent to a friend in London, and it was published in one small volume in 1782. He used a common device – the travels of an object – as a way of making comment and expressing his personal political and medical views. Copies can still be bought from on-line book distributors. The reviews of the book itself at the time of publication showed why Helenus had a much more distinguished career as a surgeon than as a writer. Even though they were not wealthy, Helenus’ parents sent him to the Grammar School in Dundee where he was schooled in Greek, Latin and Sciences.
He later attended the University of Dundee and studied a course of Sciences. “The university was widely regarded at the time as setting the standard for professional excellence in the.field, with English universities lagging behind” (“The Making of British India Fictions, 1772-1823”, By Ashok Malhotra Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History, University of Edinburgh, School of History and Classics, Year of Submission: 2009) “After his studies Scott enlisted as a cadet in the East India Company becoming an assistant surgeon in 1783. He was stationed in Bombay which was considered at the time a lesser relation to the other colonial cities, Madras and Calcutta. Bombay, with its high mortality rate for British residents and lacking in the landmark buildings and ostentatious expatriate social gatherings of the other two cities, was considered by East India cadets to be the least favourable colonial metropolis in which to be stationed As six extra battalions were detached to Bombay between the years 1778-1784, there was a need for extra medical officers such as Scott.
Scott was to have an extremely successful career in the Bombay presidency as a surgeon. Stationed in the island of Salsette, just north of Bombay, the doctor initiated a successful vaccination programme among the local inhabitants. In addition to his skills as a physician he was also known for his scientific researches; cultivating a superior form of hemp that was used for rope in the British shipping industry and introducing a new kind of alkali that was an agent for the manufacture of gunpowder. Scott was also well networked with the scientific community back in England, corresponding with Joseph Banks, the president of the Royal Society, and the famous Bristol scientist, John Beddoes. In 1801, he became a second member of the Indian medical board and president in 1806″ In the introduction to his book “The Adventures of a Rupee”, Helenus is described as being passionate in his admiration of liberty and of those struggling for it , particularly the American Revolutionary War against England. He was talked out of joining General Washington by friends.
“But from this youthful folly, in which he consulted chiefly the vivacity of his temper, he was diverted by the prudence of his friends: …. ” In the late 18th Century medicine was emerging as a respectable occupation. Surgery, Helenus Scott’s chosen field, was still sometimes equated with the craftsmen Surgeon¬Barbers who had since mediaeval times provided medical aid to soldiers after battle. In 1745 the Company of Surgeons split from the Company of Barbers and eventually became the Royal College of Surgeons. Helen us became a cadet with East India Company and first left for India in 1 779. The ship was forced to return to Portsmouth because of storms, the voyage was abandoned and Helenus made his way to London. It was there he met his first wife who he calls “Anna, peerless maid” and became engaged.
He again attempted to reach India overland via the Netherlands, Brussels, Venice, Germany and Hungary. Running out of money he decided to return to London by a different route. During his travels he spent a night in jail in Genoa due to not having a letter of introduction to anyone in the city. He and Anna Maria Davies were married in 1781 and left for India in 1782.
The beloved Anna Maria Scott disappears from history and we can only speculate why. In Bombay, India, Helenus met his second wife Augusta Maria Frederick, born in Maharashtra India in 1775, the daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Frederick. (Her sister Lucy married John Young, eldest son of Sir William Young, 1st baronet and East India Co. director. John Young became Sir John Young, On 18 January 1861 Young was appointed to succeed Sir William Denison as governor of New South Wales. He and Lucy left the colony and Young eventually became Governor-General of Canada. Lambing Flat, the town in New South Wales, was renamed Young after him.)
Augusta Maria and Helenus became parents in Bombay (Mumbai) to Augusta Maria Frederick Scott in 1798 and Robert Scott in 1799. Their marriage was solemnised in November 1800 shortly before the birth of their third child, Alexander Walker Scott in Bombay. Helenus Scott the Younger was born in 1802 and David Scott in 1804, also in Bombay. Helenus and Augusta’s last child, Patrick Scott, was born in 1808 in Dundee, Scotland. In her book “The Bombay country ships, 1790-1833” Anne Bulley describes Helenus the elder as “that energetic Bombay scientist” Helenus sent a quantity of”Wootz” steel to England in 1796 to Sir Joseph Banks and others for testing. At that time India was struggling to enter the trade of building iron-hulled ships. Indian ship-builders were highly skilled in building teak-hulled ships but lacked the quality and quantity of raw materials to build them is iron..
“Wootz is the name given to an exceptional grade of iron ore steel first made in southern and south central India and Sri Lanka perhaps as early as 300 BC. Wootz is formed using a crucible to melt, burn away impurities and add important ingredients, and it contains a high carbon content (nearly 1.5%). Although iron making was part oflndian culture by as early as 1100 BC the earliest evidence for the processing of iron in a crucible has been identified at the site of Kodumanal in Tamil Nadu province, and possibly also at Andhra Pradesh. The term ‘wootz’ appears in English in the late 18th century, and is probably derived from ukku, the word for crucible steel in the Indian language Kannada, and possibly from ‘ekku’ in old Tamil. Wootz steel is the primary component of Damascan steel. Syrian blacksmiths used wootz ingots to produce extraordinary steel weaponry throughout the middle ages.”
From the Indian National Academy of Engineering – Indian Engineering Heritage : Metallurgy website http://inae.org/metallurgy/guotes.htm comes a reference.
Superior quality of Steel produced in ancient and medieval India and simplicity of its production technology is unmatched in the history of science in the World. Dr Helenus Scott sent samples of Indian steel to Sir J. Banks, President of the British Royal Society with the following note,
“I enclose in one of the boxes a specimen of a kind of steel which is called wootz and is in high esteem among the Indians. It appears to admit of a harder temper than anything we are acquainted with. I should be happy to have your opinion of its quality and composition. It is employed here for covering that part of gun locks which the flint strikes, for cutting iron on a lathe, for chisels for cutting stone, for files and saws and for every purpose where excessive hardness is necessary.”
Helenus also maintained a flow of correspondence with Sir Joseph Banks about the cultivation, cleaning and dyeing of cotton, read and studied the botany and sciences of the Indian traditions and regarded the Indian doctors he consulted as his intellectual equal – somewhat unusual for the times. •711e Development ofModem Medicine in Noo-W~ Countries; Historical Perspectives”. Royal Asiatic Society Books, Edited by Hormoz Ebrahimneiad , published in 2008, includes a chapter written by Mark Harrison on Helenus Scott titled “Medical Experimentation in British India; The case of Dr Helenus Scott”.
Helenus firmly established his scientific credentials – observation, accurate recording, careful experimentation at the beginning of his book “The Adventures of a Rupee”, where he says “Ye theorists ( a powerful band!) who corrupt all true philosophy and genuine induction by not attending to the never erring operations of nature with sufficient accuracy; who mistake your own disordered notions for eternal truths; who jumble effects with efficients, and causes with their consequences; it is not for you to judge of my production.” He rejects hypothesis and belief in favour of laboratory analysis. Where a new medical treatment might be hazardous he dido ‘t hesitate to try it first on himself in a carefully measured and recorded experiment. Reading his notes about taking Nitrous Acid for liver and biliary tract diseases and the chronicle of experimentation on himself it is clear that he was a courageous man!
He successfully inoculated a three and a half year old child against the dreaded Smallpox with the recently introduced vaccine in 1802 and by 1803 European children were being routinely inoculated .. Helenus published very little and most knowledge about him comes from the writings of people who knew him and worked with him yet his “pioneering research in chemical therapeutics reached a wide audience and inspired similar studies in Britain and elsewhere.” The medical service of the British East India Company “prided itself on its independence from metropolitan authority authority and its empirical, experimental approach to medicine.”
AAt some time Helenus and Augusta moved to London and lived in 65 Russell Square. Bloomsbury Project – University College London – Gower Street – London – WClE 6BT
Duke of Bedford’s Estate
No. 65 was the home of portrait painter Sir Thomas Lawrence from 1813 until his sudden death there in 1830 (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography); “Legend has it that when the Russian general Platoff was sitting for him, the house was guarded by Cossacks mounted on white chargers” (Camden History Society, Streets of Bloomsbury & Fitzrovia, 1997)
The physician James Lind died here in 1812 at the home of his son-in-law William Burnie; another physician, William Saunders, lived here until 1814 (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)
Edward Sterling, co-proprietor of The Times, moved here briefly with his wife Hester (nee Coningham) and their surviving children in about 1815 (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)
The military surgeon Helenus Scott opened a medical practice here in 1817 ( Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)
Helenus Scott the Elder.Helenus Scott the Younger and Robert Scott travelled to Australia in the ship Britomart in 1821. Helenus Scott the Elder intended to stay for four years in the colony while Augusta Maria stayed at home with their daughter. Helenus was in poor health, a long-term effect of the 30 years he spent in Bombay, but clearly did not think he was close to death. A diary of the voyage was kept by Helenus servant and includes an account of his death.
[Page 6] 1821 We left London the 8th of August and went to Gravesend in the steam Boat called the Swiftsure and went on board the Ship Britomart and on the 10th weighd Anchor and the Pilot came on board the wind blowing very fresh I soon began to sicken and went to bed and wished myself on shore again on the 12th we anchord in the Downs and I got better and went on deck and got ]aught at by all the Sailors on the 13 the wind got fair and the Anchor was weighd and I soon got as sick as ever and went to my bed and never got up again until the 18th when we anchord at Portsmouth when I got better and went on shore and stayd on shore until the evening, when I went on board and we laid at Spithead until the 30th all the passengers being on Board and everything ready the anchor was weighd in hopes of beating round the Isle of White but we were forced by a fowl wind to put back when the Captain and several of the passengers went on shore there was twenty two passengers the Ships company was twenty one and the Captain, altogether fourty four people on board on the 2nd of Sept we left Spithead and
[Page 7] saild through the Needles with a fine breese but very clowdy weather I soon was sick as ever and went to bed and remaind very bad until the 10th when I began to get better and able to be on deck. but Master very poorly on the 12th we crossd the Bay of Biscay Master very ill and confined to his cabbin. on the 13th it blew a very heavy Gale with a very heavy sea nothing set but the main topsail and continued all night blowing very heavy but nothing happend particular, on the 14th it became quite a calm about 40Clock in the afternoon a fine breese. sprung up from the West and all hands were calld to make sail, at six OClock Master was taken a great deal worse but the Doctor said he could do no more for him nothing particular happend until the 11th of October when a Ship came in sight the Captain ordered the signal to be hoisted and the Ship to lay too, about twelve OClock we came up too her and she proved to be a French Ship from Bordeux bound to the Isle of France, a Boat ws hoisted out and our Captain went on board and bought some french Wine
[Page 8] for he thought master would like some of it as he kept getting worse and could not get him to take anything, and he kept getting worse until the 15th when he died about 12 oClock in the day but he remaind sensable until the last and said from the first of his illness that he shoud never get well and wishd to be hurried at the Cape of Good Hope. on the 16th he was put into a Cask of Rum .
[Page 11] nearly off, the evening being very fine the Passengers were Dancing on deck till twelve OClock, the Weather getting very warm, 28th fell in with a Brig bound for Liverpool and Mr Robert Scott sent a Letter by her to his Mother to tell her of the death of his Father 29th being a very fine day and very little wind there were very little done except Dancing and singing the Weather getting very hot.
[Page 14] up to the Masthead to look out for land for the Captain thought they were not far from the Cape by his observation of the sun in the morning and also by the number of Cape Pigeons flying about but there was no land to be seen we had a fine breese the whole of the day in the evening they slackend sail and kept gently on until the next morning when it got light Table Mountain was quite plain right ahead and by two OClock we were nearly up close to the land at four OClock we came to an Anchor in Table Bay. the next Morning we went on shore to a Mrs Gees on the 21st The Cask containing the Body of Dr Scott was brought on Shore onto the Beech and the Body taken out and put into a Coffin and carried to the Undertakers were it remain until the 23rd when all the Gentlemen Passengers all attended the Funeral 24th went to Constantia about nine Miles from Cape Town to see the Vineyards. Nothing particular happend during our stay at the Cape. December the l st we left the Cape “
“Anonymous diary by a servant of the Scott family, 8 Aug. 1821-Mar. 1824 (written after 1825), with notes, 1832”.
Robert and Helenus the younger continued the voyage to NSW.
The legacy left by Helenus Scott was the influence he had on his children and particularly Alexander Walker Scott, and through him on Helena and Harriett Scott, vigorous intellectual curiosity and study, measured and careful science and experimentation, observation direct from nature, faithful recording of observations, and frequent correspondence and discussion with other scientists.