Daniel Hanbury's Study of Chinese MATERIA MEDICA : A British Network of Letters and Specimens during the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

This article focuses on British scientist Daniel Hanbury and his extensive network of correspondence and research practices concerning Chinese materia medica . As a researcher motivated by the need for knowledge of various natural materials for their commercial value, Hanbury's academic career benefited primarily from his extensive correspondence. By controlling his own network of plant acquisition and interchange, he mobilized numerous individuals and organized the network to collect specimens, drug samples, and various forms of information and send them to London. As the British commercial empire expanded, so too did Hanbury's network grow to include many collectors who were allowed to enter an increasing number of Chinese port cities, which entailed notable opportunities and challenges. By paying attention to the details of Hanbury's strategies and efforts to ensure that the collaboration in China conformed to the changing definition of ‘scientific knowledge’ of drugs, the article sheds light on how the practice of relying on the transnational botanical network was executed in the context of nineteenth-century research on foreign materia medica .