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Jean Ferdinand Caius

French botanist and university teacher (1877-1944)

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
History and societyInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ123676407 ↗
Source-derived summary

Jean Ferdinand Caius (17 January 1877 – 27 July 1944) was a French Jesuit priest in India who taught botany and conducted pharmacological studies on medicinal and toxic plants as well as on snake and scorpion venoms in India. He also served on the Indian Drugs Enquiry Committee (1930-31) .

Life and work

Caius was born in a village in the district of le Medoc. He went to school in Toulouse before joining the Society of Jesus. He came to India in 1895 as part of the Madura Mission. He was posted to teach at St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirapalli until 1905. He also started a natural history museum at the college. He completed theological studies at Kurseong and then at St Beunos College in North Wales. He was ordained at Milltown park, Dublin in 1908.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Jean Ferdinand Caius” as french botanist and university teacher (1877-1944). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewMost valuable as an event-and-institution map that identifies actors, dates and record creators for deeper historical inquiry. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1877, 1944, 1930, 1895—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1877, 1877-01-17—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. The account is most persuasive where Jean, Ferdinand and Caius can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as french botanist and university teacher (1877-1944). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q123676407. VIAF identifies the subject as 60565422. The Library of Congress control number is n86084391. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1877, 1944, 1930 and 1895.

Critical limits

Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Jean Ferdinand Caius”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Jean Ferdinand Caius primary sources, Jean Ferdinand Caius archive and Jean research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Jean Ferdinand Caius”?
  2. What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
  3. Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Jean Ferdinand Caius” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.