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{{Short description|Indian zoologist (1891–1954)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Use Indian English|date=March 2025}}
[[File:Karm_Narayan_Bahl.jpg|thumb|Karm Narayan Bahl]]
'''Karm Narayan Bahl''' (14 February 1891 – 21 April 1954) was an Indian zoologist who studied earthworms, their [[Nephridium|nephridial]] morphology, and excretion. He served as a professor of zoology at [[University of Lucknow|Lucknow University]]. He founded a series of memoirs on model animals of Indian origin for the purposes of teaching zoology in India.

== Life and work ==
Bahl was born in [[Multan]] and was educated at the Government college in Lahore receiving a master's degree in 1913 with a Maclagan Gold medal.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hardy |first=A. C. |date=1954 |title=Prof. K. N. Bahl |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=174 |issue=4418 |pages=16 |doi=10.1038/174016a0 |s2cid=4263145 |issn=0028-0836|doi-access=free |bibcode=1954Natur.174...16H }}</ref> He then joined there as an assistant professor. He then moved to [[St. John's College, Agra]] and then to [[Muir Central College|Muir Central College, Allahabad]] in 1916. A major influence was professor [[John Stephenson (zoologist)|John Stephenson]] and with his reference spent some time at the [[Indian Museum, Kolkata|Indian Museum]] in Calcutta. In 1919 he went to [[Merton College, Oxford|Merton College, Oxford University]] and worked under [[Edwin Stephen Goodrich]], receiving a D.Phil. in 1921 for a thesis entitled ''The development of the nephridial system in Pheretima, the blood-vascular system in Pheretima, and the gametogenesis in scorpions''. He also receive a D.Sc. from [[University of the Punjab|Punjab University, Lahore]] for a thesis on the excretory system of ''[[Pheretima]]'' in 1920. He returned to India and became head of the department of zoology at [[University of Lucknow|Lucknow University]]. He worked there until his retirement. He then became a vice chancellor of [[Patna University]] from 1951 to 1952 and resigned following a nervous breakdown.<ref name=":0" />

Bahl worked for a while on ant-mimic spiders in 1915<ref>{{cite journal |author=Narayan, Karm |year=1915 |title=Notes on ant-like spiders or the family Attidae in the collection of the Indian Museum |url=https://archive.org/details/records-indian-museum-11-393-406 |journal=Rec. Indian Mus. |volume=11 |pages=393–406}}</ref> and later studied the anatomy of physiology of earthworms, particularly those found commonly around Lucknow such as ''Pheretima'' and ''Eutyphaeus'', and founded a series on the monographs of Indian animals called the ''Indian Zoological Memoirs on Indian Animal Types''. Zoology dissections in India at the time were based on organisms that could not be easily found in India. At the Indian Science Congress, Bangalore (1924) he suggested that memoirs along the lines of those produced by the Liverpool Marine Biology Committee edited by Sir William Herdman were desirable. Eight volumes of the monograph were edited by him. He studied ''Pheretima'' and classified its nephridia into three types, septal, pharyngeal and integumentary.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bahl |first=Karm Narayan |date=1919 |title=Memoirs: On a New Type of Nephridia found in Indian Earthworms of the Genus Pheretima |url=https://journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/s2-64/253/67/62908/Memoirs-On-a-New-Type-of-Nephridia-found-in-Indian |journal=Journal of Cell Science |language=en |volume=s2-64 |issue=253 |pages=67–117 |doi=10.1242/jcs.s2-64.253.67 |issn=1477-9137|url-access=subscription }}</ref> He classified nephridia that open into the intestine as entero-nephritic and suggested that they had evolved for life away from water and in arid conditions.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bahl |first=Karm Narayan |date=1934 |title=Memoirs: On the Significance of the Enteronephric Nephridia System found in Indian Earthworms |url=https://journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/s2-76/304/559/63302/Memoirs-On-the-Significance-of-the-Enteronephric |journal=Journal of Cell Science |language=en |volume=s2-76 |issue=304 |pages=559–572 |doi=10.1242/jcs.s2-76.304.559 |issn=1477-9137|url-access=subscription }}</ref> He published an influential review on ''Excretion in the Oligochaeta'' in 1947.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bahl |first=Karm Narayan |date=1942 |title=Studies on the Structure, Development, and Physiology of the Nephridia of Oligochaeta |url=https://journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/s2-83/331/423/63489/Studies-on-the-Structure-Development-and |journal=Journal of Cell Science |language=en |volume=s2-83 |issue=331 |pages=423–457 |doi=10.1242/jcs.s2-83.331.423 |issn=1477-9137|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bahl |first=Karm Narayan |date=1941 |title=Memoirs: The Enteronephric Type of Nephridial System in the Genus Tonoscolex (Gates) |url=https://journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/s2-82/327/443/63410/Memoirs-The-Enteronephric-Type-of-Nephridial |journal=Journal of Cell Science |language=en |volume=s2-82 |issue=327 |pages=443–466 |doi=10.1242/jcs.s2-82.327.443 |issn=1477-9137|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bahl |first=Karm Narayan |date=1927 |title=Memoirs: On the Reproductive Processes of Earthworms: Part I. The Process of Copulation and Exchange of Sperms in Eutyphoeus waltoni Mich |url=https://journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/s2-71/283/479/63064/Memoirs-On-the-Reproductive-Processes-of |journal=Journal of Cell Science |language=en |volume=s2-71 |issue=283 |pages=479–502 |doi=10.1242/jcs.s2-71.283.479 |issn=1477-9137|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bahl |first=Karm Narayan |date=1922 |title=Memoirs: On the Development of the 'Enteronephric' type of Nephridial system found in Indian Earthworms of the genus Pheretima' |url=https://journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/s2-66/261/49/62946/Memoirs-On-the-Development-of-the-Enteronephric |journal=Journal of Cell Science |language=en |volume=s2-66 |issue=261 |pages=49–103 |doi=10.1242/jcs.s2-66.261.49 |issn=1477-9137|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bahl |first=Karm Narayan |date=1947 |title=Excretion in the Oligochaeta |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-185X.1947.tb00325.x |journal=Biological Reviews |language=en |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=109–147 |doi=10.1111/j.1469-185X.1947.tb00325.x|pmid=20247603 |s2cid=46686530 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> He also conducted studies on the common apple snail, ''Pila globosa'' and on the skull of monitor lizards of the genus ''Varanus''.<ref name=":0">{{cite journal |author=Roonwal, M. L. |year=1966 |title=Karm Narayan Behl |url=http://www.insa.ndl.iitkgp.ac.in/xmlui/handle/1234567/10 |journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy |pages=1–6 |archive-date=12 January 2023 |access-date=12 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230112042714/http://www.insa.ndl.iitkgp.ac.in/xmlui/handle/1234567/10 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Bahl, Karm Narayan |year=1937 |title=Skull of Varanus monitor (Linn.) |url=http://recordsofzsi.com/index.php/zsoi/article/download/162297/111978 |journal=Records of the Zoological Survey of India |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=133–174|doi=10.26515/rzsi/v39/i2/1937/162297 |s2cid=251687001 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

Bahl was a Fellow of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and served on the University Education Commission from 1948 to 1949.<ref name=":0" /> The Sri Lankan earthworm ''[[Metaphire bahli]]'' (originally placed in the genus ''Pheretima'') is named after him.<ref>{{cite journal|author =Gates, G.E. |year=1945|title= On some earthworms from Ceylon. II. |journal=Spolia Zeylanica| volume=24|pages= 70–90}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==

* [https://www.insaindia.res.in/detail.php?id=F00-0040 INSA Fellow biography]
* [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.262543 The Indian Zoological Memoirs on Indian animal types. 1. ''Pheretima''] (Fourth edition, 1947)

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bahl, Karm Narayan}}
[[Category:1891 births]]
[[Category:1954 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian zoologists]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Lucknow]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy]]
[[Category:People from Multan]]
[[Category:People from Punjab Province (British India)]]
[[Category:Alumni of Merton College, Oxford]]

Karm Narayan Bahl - Revision history

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