Headless in Kashgar

In 1854 the British East India Company, acting in co-operation with the Pru ssian Crown, commissioned Hermann, Adolph and Robert Schlagintweit to under take a scientific expedition to India and High Asia. Despite the mission's outstanding achievements, all the brothers ended forgotten and miserable. T his article will discuss (1) how three sons of a Munich eye surgeon attract ed and lost so much high-level attention, and (2) what the Schlagintweits' successes and failures tell us about British and German science in the midd le of the 19th century.