Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/270

Elliot ;' and from that time to the end of his life he was a frequent contributor to one or other of the journals which deal with the objects of his favourite researches. The journals named at the foot of this article all contain contributions, some of them numerous contributions, from his pen, the results of accurate and intelligent observation, recorded in a clear and popular style. His most important work is his treatise on the coins of Southern India, published in 1885, when the author was in his eighty-third year, which forms part ii. of the third volume of the 'International Numismata Orientalia,' and contains an interesting account of the ancient races and dynasties of Southern India, derived from the inscriptions and coins which have been discovered. A remarkable fact connected with this treatise, and with all Elliot's later compositions, is that when they were written the author, who had been extremely near-sighted all his life, was all but blind, latterly quite blind, and had to depend upon the pen of an amanuensis to commit them to paper, and upon the eyes of relatives and friends to correct the proofs. His collection of South Indian coins, about four hundred in number, and a collection of carved marbles belonging to a Buddhist tope at Amrávati, which he made when residing in the Guntúr district in 1845, are now deposited in the British Museum, where the marbles are placed on the walls facing, and on each side of, the grand staircase.

During the last twenty-four years of his life Elliot resided principally at his house at Wolfelee, taking an active part in parochial and county business. At his house, which was quite a museum, he was always glad to receive and instruct persons who were engaged in his favourite studies. He possessed a singularly calm and equable temper, and bore with unfailing patience and resignation a deprivation which to most men with his tastes and with his active mind would have been extremely trying. His intellectual vigour remained undiminished literally to the last hour of his life. On the morning of the day of his death, 1 March 1887, he dictated and signed with his own hand a note to Dr. Pope, the eminent Tamil scholar, stating that on the previous day he had read (i.e. heard read) with much appreciation a notice of Dr. Pope's forthcomingg edition of the 'Kurral,' and that, notwithstanding loss of sight and advancing years, his 'interest in oriental literature continues unabated,'and inquiring whether his correspondent could suggest any method of utilising certain 'disjecta fragmenta' connected with Francis White Ellis [q. v.], which he had collected many years before. In the evening he died with little or no suffering.

In recognition of his services in India Elliot was created in 1866 a K.C.S.I. In 1877 he was appointed a fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1878 he received from the university of Edinburgh the degree of LL.D. He was a deputy-lieutenant and magistrate for Roxburghshire. In 1839 he was married at Malta to Maria Dorothea, daughter of Sir David Blair, bart., of Blairquhan, Ayrshire, who survives him (1888), and by whom he left three sons and two daughters.

Elliot's principal writings are contained in the following publications: 'Indian Antiquary,' vols. v. vi. vii. xii. xiv. xv. xvi.; 'Madras Journal of Literature and Science.' vols. vii. x. xi. xiii. xv. xix. xx. xxi.; 'Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,' 1837; 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' 1851; 'Flora Andhrica,' 1859; 'Transactions of the Botanical Society,' 1862, 1871; 'Berwickshire National Club Journal,' 1867, 1872. 1873, 1874, 1878, 1881, 1887; 'Transactions of the International Congress of Prehistoric Archæology at Norwich,' 1868; 'Journal of the Ethnological Society,' 1869, vol. i.; 'Report of the British Association,' 1872; 'Proceedings of the Antiquarian Society of Scotland,' 1874, 1885; 'Athenæum,' '10 April 1875; 'Proceedings of the Zoological Society,' 1880; 'International Numismata Orientalia,' vol. iii. pt. ii.

 ELLIOTSON, JOHN (1791–1868), physician, son of a chemist and druggist, was born in 1791 in London. He received his preliminary education as a private pupil of the rector of St. Saviour's, Southwark. He then proceeded to Edinburgh, and subsequently entered Jesus College, Cambridge. He attended the medical and surgical classes of St. Thomas's and Guy's Hospital for three years, after which he was elected one of the assistants at Guy's, which appointment he held for five years. In 1821 he graduated as M.D. At this time he exhibited considerable fondness for the study of the action of medicines. This no doubt led to his therapeutical experiments at a later period, when he frequently alarmed his colleagues at University College Hospital by administering to his patients extravagantly large doses of drugs usually considered as poisonous. His desire to be original led Elliotson into many eccentricities. In 1826 he discarded 