Whitelaw Ainslie

Sir Whitelaw Ainslie (1767-1837) was a British surgeon and writer on materia medica, born in Duns, Berwickshire. He joined the East India Company as an assistant surgeon in 1788, served as garrison surgeon at Chingleput and then at Ganjam, and in 1810 became a superintending surgeon, later for the southern division of the Madras army. The company directors approved his motives in drawing up a scheme to improve the health of troops in India, though they rejected the plan itself. During his years there he published the Materia Medica of Hindostan in 1813, the first major English work on the medicinal plants of India, and later enlarged it as Materia Indica. He also wrote on elephantiasis, on smallpox and variolation in India, and on climate and health. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1829, he was knighted in 1835.