The Natural History of Indian Serpents: Dr. Patrick Russell, Colonial Medicine and the British Empire///Hindistan Y lanlar n n Do al Tarihi: Dr. Patrick Russell, Koloni Eczac l ve ngiliz mparatorlu u

Dr. Patrick Russell, born and brought up in Edinburgh, Scotland, a true product of the Scottish Enlightenment, introduced an original discipline—natural history of serpents—in eighteenth-century British India. He was also indefatigable in his study of Indian botany and ichthyology. Russell‘s brief Indian career, particularly his endeavour in snakology, suggests that the diffusion of modern natural history and knowledge of Western medicine was an intricate process, not confined to any particular epistemological domain. This paper has sought to profile the emergence of Western medical-zoology by individual research, as a constituent of natural history science concerning particularly the snake-poisoning in a colonial empire. The article also critiques the concept of Orientalist‘ strategy to dominate the colonised world through knowledge through European knowledge in India.