Jean Ferdinand Caius

Jean Ferdinand Caius (17 January 1877 – 27 July 1944) was a French Jesuit priest in India who taught botany and conducted pharmacological studies on medicinal and toxic plants as well as on snake and scorpion venoms in India. He also served on the Indian Drugs Enquiry Committee (1930-31) .

Life and work[edit]

Caius was born in a village in the district of le Medoc. He went to school in Toulouse before joining the Society of Jesus. He came to India in 1895 as part of the Madura Mission. He was posted to teach at St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirapalli until 1905. He also started a natural history museum at the college. He completed theological studies at Kurseong and then at St Beunos College in North Wales. He was ordained at Milltown park, Dublin in 1908. He studied at the school of medicine at the University of Paris around 1909. In 1911 he returned to India and continued teaching at Tiruchirapalli until 1922. His work on medicinal plants and animal toxins led to his being appointed as a pharmacologist to the Haffkine Institute in Bombay in 1924.[1] Along with Mhaskar he conducted some of the earliest pharmacological studies on indigenous herbal drugs.[2] He collaborated with Marie Phisalix on snake venoms. Together they examined the effects of secretions of various glands on birds, guinea pigs, and lizards. They found that salivary gland extracts of some snakes considered non-venomous had toxic effects.[3][4][5] In 1930, he was included as a member of the Indian Drugs Enquiry Committee under Colonel R. N. Chopra.[6] During this period he also examined scorpions, the study of whose venoms he had begun in 1912.[7][8] He was also involved in a BNHS study of the attraction of mammals to salt licks and the composition of the soils.[9] He retired in 1932 and then continued to teach and conduct research at St. Xavier's College in Bombay. He was a member of the Bombay Natural History Society in whose journal he regularly published on plants. This included a major series on the poisonous plants of India which he wrote right until the time of his death.[10][11][12][13][14] He also was an editor for the journal. He published books on the plant medicines used for snake bite and on poisonous plants. He was made Officier d’Academie in 1929 and Officer de L’Instruction Publique (1936) by the French government. He died in Bombay.[15] A laboratory at St Xavier's college is named after him.[16][17][18]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Mhaskar, K.S.; Caius, J.F. (1931). "Indian Plant Remedies used in Snake-Bite". Indian Medical Research Memoirs (19): 96.
  2. ^ Mukerji, B. (1969). "Birth of modern pharmacology in India". Indian Journal of Pharmacology. 1 (1): 8–17.
  3. ^ Phisalix, Marie; Caius, R.P.F. (1919). "Sur la toxicité comparée du sang des Serpents". Bulletin de la Société de Pathologie Exotique. 12 (3): 132–134.
  4. ^ Phisalix, M.; R. Caius (1918). "L'extension de la fonction venimeuse dans l'ordre entière des ophidiens et son existence chez des familles ou elle n'avait pas été soupçonnée jusqu'içi". Journal de Physiologie et de Pathologie générale. 17: 923–964.
  5. ^ Phisalix, M.; R. Caius (1916). "Propriétés venimeuses de la salive parotidienne chez des colubridés aglyphes. Des genres Tropidonotus Kuhs, Zamenis et Helicops Wagler". Bulletin du Muséum national d'histoire naturelle. 22: 213–218.
  6. ^ Anon (1930). "The Drugs Enquiry Committee, India, 1930". The Indian Medical Gazette: 640–642.
  7. ^ "The toxicity of the venoms of Indian scorpions". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 34: 1051. 1930.
  8. ^ Caius, J.F. (1930). "The toxicity of the venom of Indian scorpions". The Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 34: 788-789.
  9. ^ Caius, J.F.; Bharucha, K.H. (1929). "Earth-eating and salt-licking in India". The Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 33: 676–679.
  10. ^ Caius, J.F. (1935). "The Papaw Tree". The Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 38: 41-60.
  11. ^ Caius, J.F. (1934). "The medicinal and poisonour palms of India". The Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 37: 917-941.
  12. ^ Caius, J.F. (1942). "The medicinal and poisonous flaxworts of India". The Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 42: 167-170.
  13. ^ Caius, J.F. (1944). "The medicinal and poisonour sterculiads of India". The Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 45: 576-586.
  14. ^ Caius, J.F. (1936). "The medicinal and poisonous orchids of India". J Bombay Nat Hist Soc. 38 (4): 791–799.
  15. ^ Mascarenhas, Conrad (2011). "Caius, Jean Ferdinand". In Hedlund, R.E.; Athyal, J.M.; Kalapati, J.; Richard, Jessica (eds.). The Oxford Encyclopaedia of South Asian Christianity. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198073857.
  16. ^ D’Souza, Leo (2020). "Jesuit Contributions to Biological Sciences in India". Journal of Jesuit Studies. 7 (2): 263–281. doi:10.1163/22141332-00702007. ISSN 2214-1324.
  17. ^ [S.H.P.] (1944). "Obituary. Father Jean Ferdinand Caius, S.J." Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society: 79–80.
  18. ^ Caius, J.F. (1942). "The pomegranate". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 42: 13–37.
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