Frank Wall

Frank Wall

Frank Wall (born April 21, 1868 in Nuwara Eliya , Ceylon , † May 19, 1950 in Bournemouth , Dorset ) was a British military doctor and herpetologist . His main research interests were the snakes and blind snakes of the Near East and British India .

Live and act

Through his father, who was a prominent politician in Ceylon, Wall became interested in natural history at an early age. In 1892 he qualified for membership (MRCP) at Middlesex Hospital in London and as a licentiate (LRCP) at the Royal College of Physicians . In 1893 he joined the Indian Medical Service and after completing his training at Netley Hospital near Southampton , he traveled to India.

Before he left the army and returned to England, he was stationed several times in India, Ceylon and Burma, where he collected snakes in his spare time. During the First World War he served on the Mesopotamia front and in France . For this he was awarded the Order of St. Michael and St. George . In 1920 he was promoted to colonel .

Back in England, Wall donated his holotypes and skull collection to the Natural History Museum . Since Wall was a field researcher and not a museum scientist, he gave up his herpetological research. He was interested in studying live snakes (ophiology), in particular systematics, distribution, way of life and anatomy.

In the period 1898-1925 published Wall about 215 scientific articles, including the first descriptions to Amphiesma bitaeniatum , Amphiesma venningi , Amphiesma xenura , Boiga andamanensis , Boiga beddomei , Boiga quincunciata , Brachyophidium rhodogaster , bungarus magnimaculatus , bungarus niger , Dendrelaphis cyanochloris , Dendrelaphis Gorei , Eirenis mcmahoni , Lycodon flavomaculatus , Lycodon mackinnoni , Well sagittifera , Oligodon erythrorhachis , Oligodon juglandifer , Oligodon mcdougalli , Oligodon melaneus , Oligodon melanozonatus , Rhabdophis leonardi , Rhinophis drummondhayi , Rhinophis porrectus , Telescopus tessellatus , Thermophis baileyi , Typhlops fletcheri , Typhlops oligolepis and Typhlops wilsoni .

Wall's first major work was a serial publication in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society . The entry A Popular Treatise on the Common Indian Snakes contains 28 color plates and appeared in 29 parts between 1905 and 1919. In 1907 the first edition of The Poisonous Terrestrial Snakes of our British Indian Dominions was published. In 1908, 1913 and 1928 three more editions of this book were published. In 1921 Wall wrote his most famous book, Ophidia Taprobanica or the Snakes of Ceylon . Between 1923 and 1925 the five-part work A Hand List of Snakes of the Indian Empire was published , a systematic list in which all synonyms are listed.

literature

• Kraig Adler: Contributions to the History of Herpetology , Society for the study of amphibians and reptiles. 1989.