The sudden death of Dr. Sunder Lal Hora,

Director, Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta, on

December 8, 1955, comes as a great shock to his

many friends and colleagues throughout the world

Silas, E G

CMFRI Digital Repository

134 COPEIA, 1956, NO.2 ScHMIDT, Curalor of Zoology Emeritus, Chicago Natu-ral History Mnseum, Chicago, Illinois. FISH MORPHOLOGY ANT> HIERARCHY. Parts II and m. (For Part I see Copem, 1956: 66.) By Kiyomatsu Matsubara. 1955. (In Japanese.)-Part II, of 815 pages, continues the systematic accounts and keys from the ophidioicis through the angler fishes. This section is followed by 15 pages of general references, 19 pages of English glossary with equivalents and definitions in Japanese, and separate indices for scientific and Japanese fish names. Part ill, bound separately, contains 135 plates with 461 figures of fishes in black and white republished from various sources. Parts II and ill are sold together for approximately $15.00. KEY TO THE FISHES OF IN"DIANA. By Shelby D. Gerking. Investigations of Indiana Lakes and Streams, 1955, 4: 49-86.-Deals with 174 species (including M oxostoma breviceps and Notropis dorsalis, expected but not definitely re· corded from the state) in 29 families and 71 genera. Subspecies are recognized in 11 species, making 185 forms. The format and much of the dichotomy is taken from Hubbs and Lagler. Petromyzon marinus and CarpWdes for-bed have been added since 1945. Recent nomenclatorial changes have been adopted (e.g., Ameiurus = !ctaJmus, SeMI-beodu = Noturus, Let~hthys = CoregontlS, and CJinostomus = Gila). There is an annotated list of new distribution records for the 130 collections made since 1945, when the author's distributional study appeared. A key to the families is followed by a key to the species, each of which is given a common name. There are no illustrations. COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE FISHES OF JAPAN. By Toshiji Kamohara. Hoikusba, Osaka, Japan, 1955: xi + 135, 64 col. pls.-Another book of color plates of Japanese fishes of the type put out ui Japan so frequently and so well. As compared with Tanaka's jlJap-anese fishes in life colors" (193 1) or Okada, Uchida, and Matsubara's UIllustrated text of Japanese fishes" (1935; see Copeia, 1955: 245) Tomiyama's figures appear a bit gaudy and stylized. How well they actually depict the fishes is impossible for one unacquainted with the Japanese fauna to say. REPTILES OF WEST AFRICA. By G. Cansdale. Penguin Books, London, 1955: 104 pp., 8 figs . LES METAMORPHOSES DES BATRACIENS. By P. C. J. Roth. Les Heures Scientifiques, Durod, Paris, 1955: 98 pp., figs. A BIBLIOGRAPHY ON THE VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF IRAQ AND NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES. m. Reptiles and Amphibians. IV. Fishes. Iraq Natural History Museum, Bagdad, 1955. FISH SAVING, A HISTORY OF FISH PROC-ESSING FROM ANCIENT TO MODERN TIMES. By Charles L. Cutting. Philosophi· cal Library, N. Y., 1956: xv + 372, 4S pls., 16 figs. $12.00. DISEASES OF FISHES. By C. van Duijn, Jr. Water Life, Dorset House, London, 1956: xiii + 174, illus. $2.15. SNAKES AND SNAKE CATCHING IN SOUTH-ERN AFRICA. By R. M. Isernonger. Pub\. by Howard B. Timmins, 58 Long Street, Cape Town, 1955: 106 pp., 50 illus. ESSAYS IN MARINE BIOLOGY. Edited by S. M. Marshall and A. P. Orr. Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, 1953: vii + 144, figs. $1.75. NORTH AMERICAN PRAIRIE. By J . E. Weaver. Johnsen Publ. Co., Lincoln, Neb., 1954: xi + 348, 87 figs., $5.00. THE SNAKES OF INDIA AND PAKISTAN. By K. G. Charpurey. Popular Book Depot, Bombay, 1954: vi + 154, 76 figs. THE WORLD AQUARIST. A quarterly journal published by World Federation of Aquarists, Administrative Center W.F.A., % W. Veldhuizen, 37, Stieltjeslaan, Hilversum, Netherlands. Vol. 1, 1955. II EDITORIAL NOTES AND NEWS II SUNDER LAL HORA The sudden death of Dr. Sunder Lal Hora, Director, Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta, on December 8, 1955, comes as a great shock to his many friends and colleagues throughout the world. A very brilliant star in the world of science has been extinguished, and ichthyology in particular is rendered poorer by the loss of one of its most accomplished devotees. His death has also left a gap in the scene of Indian zoology which will be hard to fill. Born in Hafizabad, Punjab, on May 2, 1896, '·:D1TORIAL ~OTES .-\~D ~E\rS PLATE I Plwlo" ,aph by L. P. S(hult~ Dr. Sunder Lal Hora, Dec. 2, 1953, Calcutta EDITORIAL NOTES AND NEWS 135 !-lora studied at the Das-Anglo Sanskrit H igb School, Jullunder, and later attended the Govern-ment College, Labore, of the Punjab University. On a visit to Lahore in 1919 Dr. Nelso~ Annan-dale, founder and then Director of the Zoological Survey of India, saw in Hora great promise and invited him to Calcutta to continue researches as an associate. The distinguished Indian Zoologist D r. Baini Prashad was already working in Calcutta and after Hora's arrival, Drs. B. N. Chopra and H. S. Rae joined their ranks in the carly twenties, to form a select band of Indian zoologists who received their training from Annandale. At the Survey, Hora was appointed Assistant Superin-tendent in 1921 in charge of ichthyology and ber-petology and later became Superintendent and in 1947, when Prashad was called to advise the Gov· crnment on matters of fisheries development in India, Hora became Director. Hora's prolific output of research began with a faunistic study of "The Fish of Seistan," written in 1920 in collaboration with Annandale. In recent years, despite heavy administrati ve duties, fre· quent travels and other preoccupations he continued his interest in research with the same vigour and at the time of his death had published over four hundred scientific papers on a great variety of subjects, mainly dealing with various aspects of ichthyology. He had an abiding interest in the study of animal ecology, adaptation and evolution and later became concerned with zoogeographical and palaeogeographical problems. Hora always recalled with love and gratitude the lasting influence Annandale had on his thought and carly scientific development; for, from him he acquired an insatiable curiosity to delve into the habits and habitats of the animals that he came across. Annandale advocated a policy, whereby each member of his staff had the opportunity of spending a few months every year in the field and Hora himself availed of this from the very begin-ning and developed an uncanny knack for selecting problems in the field which were worthy of inten-sive laboratory study. To him animals were complex systems interacting always with the almost equally complex and ever-changing environment. Hence it is no wonder that his writings, whether they be in systematic ichthyology or in faunistic studies are all impregnated v.-ith much valuable data gained through field observations. This quality marked him as an outstanding field naturalist. It was while engaged in a field survey of the Manipur Valley in the eastern Himalayas (Assam) with Annandale that Hora was first struck by the amazing adaptations of animals inhabiting the hill·streams. Subsequently, both studied the adap-tive modifications of fishes and batrachians in· habiting the hill-streams. These researches were among the foundations on which Hora's opinions on the broad zoological questions of adaptation and evolution later became resolved. His work on the torrential fauna culminated in a monograph on the "Ecology, Bionomics and Evolution of Tor-rential Fauna, with special reference to the organs of attachment" (Trans. Roy. Soc. London (B) 218: 171-282) , which will remain a classic on account of its masterly exposition. He felt that the unit of evolution is not an individual, much less a chromosome, but that the entire population is affected by some external factors and hence that evolution may be defined as "an increase in the capacity of a group of individuals to respond to the changes in the environment in a way more suitable to the conditions of existence." He was critical of the usage of the term "non-adaptive characters" and would rather have them labelled as "uninvestigated characters." He con· sidered "preadaptation" as partly explaining how certain animals could colonize difficult situations, or " dynamic environmental conditions" such as a torrential environment, or the breaker zone close to the shore, where everything is subordinated to the environment. His views on convergent and divergent evolution are well expressed not only in his works on the hill-stream fauna, but also in his studies of the evolution of the air-breathing fishes and the adaptations of the gobioid fishes of the Gangetic estuary. He attributed the marked re· semblance of the bomaloptcrid and gastromyzorud fishes, to an extreme case of convergence and de-duced the origin of the two groups which he later treated as phyletically separate families, the former evolved from the Cyprinidae and the latter from the Cobitidae. Early in 1927 he contemplated a much-needed revision of Day's "Fishes" in the Fauna of British India series, but his various other activities inter· fered . However, his many faunistic studies and revisions of Oriental cyprinoid and siluroid fishes will serve as a founda tion for any future compre· hensive work on Indian fishes. Hora's researches of hill-stream fishes led him on to zoogeographical and palaeogeographical studies and in 1937 he propounded the "Satpura hypothesisll to explain the occurrence in Peninsular India of fishes closely allied to those of the Malaya Peninsula. His attack on this problem became a collaborative synthesis of biological, meteorological, geological and geographical data which led to a meaningful interpretation of a considerable amount of faunistic and taxonomic data. Although opinions may slightly differ as to the different time of migra-tion indicated by Hora, the major part of his thesis remains irrefutable. Hora became interested in fisheries while doing the "Fish and Fisheries of Marupur ... ," in 1920. 136 COPEIA, 1956, NO.2 Between 1942 and 1947, as Director of Fisheries, Bengal, he was able to further his interests in this field and before long was recognized as a leading exponent of pond culture of freshwater fishes and, at the time of his death had completed an extensive treatise on the subject. Many in America will remember his last visit to this country, when under the auspices of the United Nations, he opened a discussion on "Pond Culture of Warm Water Fishes" at Lake Success in 1949. His advice on fishery matters was always sought by the Govern-ment of India, by the different State Fishery officials in India, and by fisheries biologists from other countries. He represented India in many international fisheries conferences. A born naturalist, Hora's interest in wildlife conservation can be well understood. As Honorary General Secretary of the Indian Board for Wildlife Conservation, he helped a great deal in the formu-lation of plans for more judicious methods of wild· We conservation, for the formation of National Parks, etc. Hora became deeply interested in assessing the knowledge of ancient Hindus concerning the fishes and fisheries of India, with the idea of tackling fishery problems in India today against the back-ground of the wealth of traditional knowledge that had hitherto remained buried in Pali and Sanskrit literature. His many contributions on this theme were published by the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Hora's pre-eminence in the field of biology in Asia was well recognized and he was honoured by various scientific bodies both in India and abroad. He recalled with pleasure his election as an Honor-ary Foreign Member of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists. The highest honour that his country and fellow scientists could bestow on him was accorded him in 1954, when he was elected General President of the Indian Science Congress Association for that year. As a man, Hora was well above medium height and of heavy build. During college days he dis-tinguished himself in the athletic field. He was quite unassuming and possessed a rare blend of humility and kindness. He was an excellent speaker and writer, a good conversationalist and had a capacious mind. As an administrator, he was mildly firm but no dictator. He was always ready to praise the scientific success of his colleagues, and gave every encouragement to members of his staff and pupils who will always remember him as a wise and friendly counselor and a revered master. In keeping wi.th the tradition handed down to him by his distinguished predecessors, he kept the Zoological Survey of India in the forefront of in-stitutions of its kind in the world, and as a center for zoological research in India. Early in 1953 he suffered a heart attack, but recovered. Not being one to be downed by circum-stances, he soon resumed the full swing of activity. His tireless activity after illness was astounding. Nothing could diminish his ardor for work. For such a soul, nothing is more befitting than to face the end while in the line of duty. On December 6, while addressing a meeting in the Asiatic Society of Bengal, he had a second stroke and passed away two days later. It is unfortunate that time ran so short that he could not fulfill some of his major projects. Only those who knew the Horas well can say how much he and science owed to his wife's sym~ pathetic understanding and her devoted care of him during and after his period of illness in 1953. He is survived by her and by one son and two daughters. In this brief notice, I am able to give only a glimpse of the many sided activities of a versatile genius and a great teacher-one who has been a great asset to his country and to science in general. - E. G. Silas, Scripps b tstilldion of Oceanography. Univr:rsuy of California, La J oUa, CaJijornia, and, Trivandmm, rravancore-Cochin, India. A WARD of the Daniel .fl.. Giraud Elliot Medal of ' Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal the National Academy of Sciences to DR. ARCHIE CARR of the University of Florida in recognition of his "Handbook of Turtles" was announced February 2 by the President of the Academy, DR. DETLEV W. BRONK. The Elliot Medal has been awarded by the Acad-emy annually since 1917 under a provision of the will of DANIEL GIRAUD ELLIOT expressing his wish to provide a medal and honorarium to the author of any paper, essay, or other work published each year in zoology or paleontology and judged by the Academy to be of outstanding merit. Senckenberg Museum, Frankfurt am Main, Germany A COMPREHENSIVE account of the amphib-ians and reptiles of South-western Africa by DR. ROBERT MERTENS, has been published in "Abhandlungen der Senckenbergischen Naturforschenden Gesell-schaft" (No. 490, 1955). The extensive material collected by DR. MERTENS during the winter of 1954-55 in Brazil, Peru, and Venezuela has arrived in Frankfurt. The investigations on the difficult Peruvian rropidurus are already terminated and in press. The herpetological collection, brought from the Galapagos Islands by DR. EmL-EmESl'ELDT with the "Xarifa" Expedition, has been received. DR. EIBL has described a remarkable new form of Amblyrltynclltts crista/us. Another important acquisi~ tion is the herpetological collections of the Museum 

Sunder Lal Hora

http://eprints.cmfri.org.in/7042/2/139-COPEIA_1956.pdf

Sunder Lal Hora

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

CMFRI Digital Repository