{{short description|British surgeon and naturalist (1780-1826)}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Clarke Abel | image = Clarke Abel.jpg | caption = | office = Chief Medical Officer and Naturalist of the British Embassy to China | term_start = 1816 | term_end = 1817 | monarch = [[George III]] | prime_minister = | predecessor = | successor = | birth_date = 5 September 1780 | birth_place = | death_date = 24 November 1826 | death_place = [[Cawnpore]], India | party = | spouse = | children = | occupation = Surgeon, naturalist | known_for = Accompanying [[Amherst Embassy|Lord Amherst on his mission to China]], being the first Western scientist to report the presence of the orangutan on the island of Sumatra | signature = }} '''Clarke Abel''' (5 September 1780 – 24 November 1826)<ref>{{cite book |title=Abel, Clarke (1789-1826) |url=https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb10230696n |website=catalogue.bnf.fr |publisher=Bibliothèque Nationale de France |access-date=6 February 2021 |language=fr}}</ref> was a British [[surgery|surgeon]] and [[natural history|naturalist]]. {{botanist|C. Abel|Abel, Clarke|border=0|inline=1}}
He accompanied [[William Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst|Lord Amherst]] on his [[Amherst Embassy|mission to China in 1816-17]] as the embassy's chief medical officer and naturalist, on the recommendation of [[Sir Joseph Banks]]. En route, Abel landed twice in the Cape, where he devoted a chapter to the region's geology, and became notes a pioneer in South African Geology.<ref>doi:10.1017/S0016756800089329</ref>This mission to China was Britain's second unsuccessful attempt to establish diplomatic relations with China and involved travelling to the [[Beijing]] and the famous botanical gardens of Fa Tee (Huadi) near [[Guangzhou|Canton]] ([[Fangcun District]]). While in China, Abel collected specimens and seeds of the plant that carries his name, ''[[Abelia|Abelia chinensis]]'', described by Banks' botanical secretary [[Robert Brown (Scottish botanist from Montrose)|Robert Brown]], "with friendly partiality". However a shipwreck and an attack by pirates on the way back to his home in Britain caused him to lose all of his specimens. Abel's ''Narrative of a Journey in the Interior of China'', 1818,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008586229|author=Abel, Clarke|title=Narrative of a Journey in the Interior of China: And of a Voyage to and from that Country, in the Years 1816 and 1817|location=London|publisher=Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown|year=1818}}</ref> gives a detailed account of the collection's misfortunes. However, he had left some specimens with Sir George Staunton at Canton, who was kind enough to return them to him; living specimens of the Chinese Abelia that we know today were introduced by [[Robert Fortune]] in 1844.<ref>Alice M. Coats, ''Garden Shrubs and Their Histories'' (1964) 1992, ''s.v.'' "Abelia".</ref>
In March 1819 he was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]].<ref>{{cite web | url= http://www2.royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Persons&dsqPos=0&dsqSearch=%28Surname%3D%27abel%27%29| title= Library and Archive Catalogue| publisher= Royal Society| accessdate= 5 December 2010}}</ref> He was also a member of the [[Geological Society of London|Geological Society]].<ref>According to the title page of his ''Narrative'' 1818.</ref>
Abel was the first Western scientist to report the presence of the [[orangutan]] on the island of [[Sumatra]]; the Sumatran Orangutan ''[[Sumatran orangutan|Pongo abelii]]'' Lesson 1827 is named for him.<ref>Behlens, Bo, Watkins, Michael. and Grayson, Michael ''Eponym Dictionary of Mammals'', Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009 {{ISBN|978-0-801893-04-9}}. p. 1-2)</ref> He went on to become the surgeon-in-chief to [[William Pitt Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst|Lord Amherst]] when the earl was appointed [[Governor-general of India]]. Abel died at [[Kanpur|Cawnpore]], India, 24 November 1826, aged 46.<ref>{{cite book | last=Bretschneider|first=Emil|title= History of European Botanical Discoveries in China|year=2011| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=FFU-g42KVEIC | page=225|publisher=SEVERUS Verlag |isbn=9783863471651|accessdate=8 Sep 2016}}</ref>
Abel was also the first scientist to describe the Chiru or [[Tibetan Antelope]], in 1826. It is the only member of the genus [[Pantholops]].
In 1919, botanist [[Takenoshin Nakai]] published ''[[Abeliophyllum]]'', which is a genus of shrubs from [[Korea]], in the [[olive]] family, [[Oleaceae]]. It was named in Clarke Abel's honour.<ref>{{cite web |title=''Abeliophyllum'' Nakai {{!}} Plants of the World Online {{!}} Kew Science |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:28314-1 |website=Plants of the World Online |access-date=30 January 2022 |language=en}}</ref> Then in 2010, Landrein published ''[[Diabelia]]'', which is a genus of shrubs from China and Korea, in the [[Caprifoliaceae]] family.<ref>{{cite web |title=''Diabelia'' Landrein {{!}} Plants of the World Online {{!}} Kew Science |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:77105077-1 |website=Plants of the World Online |access-date=30 January 2022 |language=en}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}} * Diana Wells, ''100 Flowers and How They Got their Names'', (Chapel Hill: Algonquin), 1997. * Alice M. Coats, "The Plant Hunters", (London: Studio Vista Limited), 1969. {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abel, Clarke}} [[Category:1780 births]] [[Category:1826 deaths]] [[Category:19th-century British surgeons]] [[Category:19th-century British naturalists]] [[Category:British fellows of the Royal Society]] [[Category:Fellows of the Linnean Society of London]] [[Category:Fellows of the Geological Society of London]] [[Category:People educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood]]