An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2022 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

15961 entries, 13944 authors and 1935 subjects. Updated: March 22, 2024

HOLWELL, John Zephaniah

2 entries
  • 12396

A genuine narrative of the deplorable deaths of the English gentlemen and others who were suffocated in the Black Hole in Fort-William, at Calcutta, in the Kingdom of Bengal, in the night succeeding the 20th day of June, 1756, in a letter to a friend.

London: A. Millar, 1758.

Holwell was a survivor of the Black Hole of Calcutta in Fort William, Calcutta , a poorly ventilated dungeon measuring 4.30 × 5.50 ⁠metres (14 × 18 ⁠⁠feet), in which troops of Siraj ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, held British prisoners of war the night of 20 June 1756. As a result of this incident there were supposedly many deaths from suffocation and heat exhauston. Howell's account of this incident  obtained wide circulation in England, and some claim this gained support for the East India Company's conquest of India. His account of the incident was not publicly questioned during his lifetime, nor for more than a century after his death. However, in recent years, his version of the event has been called into question by historians. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.



Subjects: COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › India, INFECTIOUS DISEASE, VOYAGES & Travels by Physicians, Surgeons & Scientists
  • 12397

An account of the manner of inoculating for the small pox in the East Indies: With some observations on the practice and mode of treating that disease in those parts.

London: T. Becket & P. A. De Hondt, 1767.

Holwell's account of smallpox variolation in India prior to Jenner has been disputed by historians. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.



Subjects: COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › India, INDIA, Practice of Medicine in, INFECTIOUS DISEASE › Smallpox