The life and viper of Dr Patrick Russell MD FRS (1727-1805): physician and naturalist.

It is nearly two hundred years since the publication in 1796 of An Account of Indian Serpents collected on the Coast of Coromandel by Patrick Russell. Within the folio is a drawing and description of the venomous snake called Katuka Rekula Poda in the local Telugu language, whose venom was shown experimentally by Dr Russell to be nearly as lethal as that of Cobra de Capello. The snake is now known as Vipera russelli or Russell's viper. Dr Russell was representative of the naturalistic tendency of British medicine in the late 18th century. He was a keen observer and skilled doctor in clinical practice, particularly in Aleppo, Syria, during an outbreak of the plague, and indefatigable in his study of plant and animal life both in Aleppo and later in the Madras Province of India. As a physician as well as Naturalist to the East India Company in the Carnatic he was concerned with the problem of snakebite. His first aim was to find a means whereby the non-specialist could distinguish between poisonous and harmless snakes and so combat the terrible notion that all bites were mortal. His writing, encompassing social and natural histories and climaxed by a study of snakes, has left a rich legacy. Dr Patrick Russell was a man of the highest integrity and ability, a physician and naturalist par excellence.