John Shortt

John Shortt (26 February 1822 – 24 April 1889) was an Anglo-Indian physician who served in the Madras Presidency in southern India.

He conducted research on snake venoms and wrote on a variety of other subjects including anthropology, agriculture, and animal husbandry.

Shortt (senior) had joined the Madras Army as an ensign in 1760, became a Major in 1778 and retired 'invalided' as conductor of ordinance at Vellore.

He was then sent for training in medicine to Aberdeen, and received a MD from King's College in 1854 apart from qualifying MRCS and LSA.

[8] His second wife Ellen Julia Annie née Blyth (1843 - 8 July 1865) was buried at St Mary's Cemetery, Madras.

Natural history was a major interest, he described a branching palm, the nest of the arboreal Crematogaster sp.

ants,[16] a note on the Vedanthangal heronry,[17] plants used as food during famines,[18][19] and proposed poisoning tigers in Sathyamangalam with strychnine.