Abstract
EXCEPT in so far as it had a direct influence on economic development or on humanitarian problems, Lord Curzon, during his Indian Viceroyalty, showed no marked interest in scientific research. Science did not appeal to him as a branch of culture comparable to history and literature. It is true that, four years before he was appointed Viceroy, he had made a distinct mark as an explorer in the Pamirs, when he solved the problem of the source of the Oxus; but this diversion to physical geography was rather an accidental byproduct in a journey mainly devoted to the political aspects of geography and sport. Still, the recognition of this work by the Royal Geographical Society left him with the impression that geography at any rate was a science, and, so far as one could guess from his official and personal activities in India, it gave him the impression also that science was geography. Workers in other branches he seemed to regard as having a limited usefulness in solving political and economic problems, and sometimes in assisting his remarkable work in restoring respect for India's unappreciated relics of archaeological and historical value. His action in dispersing the fine collection of fishes (which had been prepared by Col. Alcock in the Calcutta Museum), to provide an opportunity for a preliminary display of the historical collections designed for the Victoria Memorial, revealed his want of appreciation of the claims of those forms of culture that had had no part in his earlier education. Fortunately, no other science workers offered obstacles to his activities, and so they could not share to the full the resentment displayed by the zoologists.
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HOLLAND, T. Lord Curzon in India. Nature 115, 467–468 (1925). https://doi.org/10.1038/115467a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/115467a0