geon-Lieutenant-Colouel D. D. Cunningham, Professor of Physiology, Medical College, Cal-
cutta, and Honorary Surgeon to the Viceroy, have been appointed Companions of the Iudiau
Empire.
CHOLERA INOCULATIONS.
Mous. Haffkine, with the assistance of Mr. have now inoculated over 7,000 people. In Patiala Mons. Haffkine inoculated the bro-
Hankin,
ther of the Maharajah and his family, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, of Justice, and the Commander-in-Chief, besides over 2,000 troops and Mons. Haffkine is now at Simla 485 prisoners. where he is carrying on more inoculations. The time has now come, we think, when the Government of India should give to Mons. Haffkine greater facilities for testing the value of his inoculatious. This, we believe, can be best done in those jails and other institutions in Bengal which are visited by cholera every year. MEDICAL EDUCATION IN BOMBAY. In au address delivered before the Bombay Medical Union at its annual meeting in April, Dr. Bhal Chandra Krishna, President of the Union,
summed
up the
principal
events with which the
Union had been directly concerned during the year. It appears to have been a year of contro-
versy between the medical profession in Bombay. Dr. Bhal Chandra Krishna does not pour oil on the troubled waters, for much of his thesis consists of an attack on Dr. Gray, late Principal of the Grant Medical College. This attitude is to be deplored, for there is much in the address which deserves attention, and which demands the sympathy of those desirous of seeing medical education in Bombay in as perfect a state as
possible. CONTAGIOUS DISEASES ACT.
The Commission of which Mr. Denzil Ibbetson is president and Deputy-Surgeon-General Cleghorn, Major Wilson, and Maulavi Samiula Khan Bahadur are members, is still engaged in hearing evidence bearing on the allegations to which we refer in our leading article. The allegations are :??
1. That within each cantonment systematic is made by or with the sanction of the military .authorities : (a) for the residence therein ot native women for the use exclusively of British soldiers ; (b) for the compulsory examination of such women at prescribed periods by European or native medical officers; (c) for the compulsory detention in hospital of any of such women under the orders of the examining officers ; (d) with penal consequences in case of disobedience to such orders in the form of arrest, fine, imprisonment, or expulsion from the cantonment.
provision
Jplsdiral Jfam HONOURS TO MEDICAL MEN OF INDIAN SERVICE. Surgeon-Colonel A. Hileon, late InspectorGeneral of Civil Hospitals, Bengal, and Sur-
July
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS.
1893.]
established under the abovementioned Acts, aud the regulations made thereunder, are systematically used for the purpose of maintaining an established system of licensed vice, and the compulsory examination of registered women, within the limits of the 2. That the
hospitals
cantonments.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. The following is the list of students who passed the final or Diploma Examination of the undermentioned Medical Schools in 1893, arranged in order of merit. Campbell Medical School. 11. Tripuresh Ch. Brama. 1. Taraprasanna Sarasati. 12. Amaresh Chandra Roy. 2. Mrs. Kadambini MukerAtal Behari Sirkar. 13. jee.* 14. Umesh Chandra Sirkar. 3. Sreemutty Susila Debi.* 15. Fakir Das Banerjee. 4. Sreemutty Banotosini 16. Hrisliikesh Das. Chunder.* Hrisikesh Mozumdar. 17. 5. Gokul Vihari Maitra. i Jadu Nath Chakrabutty. 18. G. Jella Rahman Miya. I ! 19. Upendranath Chaudhry. 7. Purna Chundra Salia. 8. Sreemanta Chandra Sil. ! 20. Nirad Chandra Bose. 21. Sreemutty Lakhimony 9. Kasiswara Roy. ' Devi.* 10. Syed Muktased Hossein.
|
*
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.
Female students.
Dacca Medical School. 15. Tarini Charan Biswas. Sarat Chandra Bhatta1G. Aishini Kumar Kar. charjee. 17. Benod B. Chakravarti. Sarat Ch. Chakravarti. 18. Ram Chandra Gope. Surendra Kumar Datta. 19. Chandra Nath Pal. Kasiswar Chakravarti. 20. Amrita Lall Guha. Jagatbandhu Roy. 21. LalitM. Chakravarti. Rash Behary Ghosh. 22. Mohim Chandra Dutta. Chandra K. Chakravarti. 23. Sasi Chandra Chaudhri. Umesh Chandra Gupta. 24. Sarat Chandra Basalc. Sita Nath Banerjee. 25. Baikant C. Chakravarti. Gagan Ch. Karmokar. 26. Tarini Kanta Das. Banku Behary Salia. 27. Ramdullab Chakravarti. Madhu S. Chaudhry. 28. Bijoy Nath Bhaduri. Rajendra Kumar Bose. Raj Kumar Das.
Cuttack Medical School. 9. Buhban Mohan Missel". 1. Blmbanananda Naik. 10. Mohendra Nath Das. 2. Devendra N. Adhikary. 11. Lingraj Dhora. 3. Gopal Chandra Pal. 12. Gopal Chandra Dey. 4. Kartick Chandra Kur 13. Sreemati Bajo. Mohapatra. 14. Asliutosh Bose. 5. Woomaprosad Mohanty. 15. Zoohooroodin Khan. 6. Peary Lall Dutt. 1G. Sheik Kadeer Bux. 7. Mohendra N. Banerjee. 17. Wooma Ch. Panigrahy. 8. Syed Exram Rusull. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
Temple Medical School, Patna. 10. Lalit Mohan Mukerjee. 11. Mahomed Yusuf. 12. Gholam Panjatan. 13. Abdar Rahaman. 14. Asliutosh Chakravarti. 15. Syed Ali Mahomed. , Rajani Kanta Bagclii. j 16. Wali Ahmed. Hafiz Mahd. Israil Huq. 17. Syed Muzher Ali. Abdul Kakim. I 18. Ishan Chandra Das. Slieik Ertiza Hossein. Bepin Behari Bose. Behari Lall Mozumdar. Kartic Chandra Gliose. Mashuq Ali Khan. Bliudeb Ch. Ghosal.
|
Naqpur Students of the above School. I 3. Balwant Luxman. | 4. Bhagwal Deem Misir. 5. Chandra Bhan.
1. Laxman Bapoji. 2. Rama Gadi.
GRANT MEDICAL COLLEGE. With reference to the Memorial to the Bombay Government relating to appointments to the Grant Medical College, the following reply has been received:? " I am directed to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, dated the 10th of January 1893,
to the address of the
235
General
Department, subdated 9th January 1893 from the Chairman and Secretaries of the Managing Committee appointed at a meeting of the local medical profession, held on the 12th November hist, praying that the reforms lately introduced by Government as regards appointments in the Grant Medical College may be pursued and completed, and that the present insuperable bar in the way of qualified local graduates and practitioners, not members of the Indian Medical Service, being appointed to places in the College and Hospital tendered less absolute, &c. In reply I am to observe that the first and second resolutions passed at the meeting, and the first and the third explanatory heads in the Memorial,appear to be directed against the orders of the Secretary of State, who has scheduled certain appointments at the Grant Medical College and at certain Government hospitals for officers of the Indian Medical Service. Whilst recognizing that the desire of the petitioners to have these appointments thrown open to them and the medical profession generally is, from their point of view, natural and deserving of sympathy, His Excellency in Council is compelled to point out that it is not in the power of a Provincial Government to change the above system. His Excellency in Council is not therefore in a position to discuss, with a view to any practical result, the arguments advanced in the Memorial iu support of the resolutions, but he is decidedly of opinion that the allegation in the first resolution that the system is mischievous in principle and practice is unwarranted. As regards the third resolution, and the second explanatory head, it appears to His Excellency in Council that the best proof of the desire of Government to adhere to the principle laid down in Government Resolution No. 19791, dated 9th November 1888, is that it has been departed from only in the case of short acting vacancies due to privilege or sick leave. The first occasion was, when owing to a sick leave vacancy in 28th March 1890, Surgeon-Captain Childe had to be transferred from the chair of Pathology to that of Physiology, and previously to the occasion referred to by the petitioners, Surgeon-Captain Childe had twice during privilege leave vacancies acted as Chemical Analyser. On the occasion in question the arrangements made appeared to His Excellency in Council to be the best possible, and he is iuformed by the Surgeon-General that they worked well and that no department was disorganized. His Excellency in Couucil has every desire to adhere, as far as possible, to the principle laid down in Government Resolution No. 1979, dated 9th November 1888, but occasional vacancies cannot be avoided, and when they do occur, it may not always be possible to avoid temporary transfers," mitting
a
Memorial,
INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.
236
[July
1893.
ported in the Philadelphia Times and Register ot 29tli, propounds a new remedy for tuberApril In the Medical Record. (New York, May 6th, culosis. Dr. Dixon, as our readers will remem1893), Dr. Hermann Gasser contributes an arti- ber, claims to have anticipated Koch in the discle on physiological psychology in which he covery of the properties of the toxine produced makes an effort to reduce all the phenomena of by the tubercle bacillus in securing immunity. mind" to the terms of matter. He would in fact PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY.
"
have us believe that mental processes are like heat only a "mode of motion." There is nothing in the article which has not been stated before by the masters of metaphysical reasoning. The whole substratum of Dr. Gasser's arguments which extend to seven long columns of type is this," whatever goes into the organism as physical force must come out again as physical force," and upon this he proceeds to build up an elaborate house of cards, the stability of which may be gathered from this one statement alone: " The only distinction between a portion of 4 what is called inert matter,' and a worm or even a man, is only difference of degree of differentiation." "When we are asked to meekly acquiesce in" such a statement as this, what matan ters it that organism is to be looked upon henceforth as a 'molecular whirlpool,' or that ' ' consciousness is only a name for the feelings of the changes that are either pleasurable or painful." We are surely tempted to reflect that certain persons are given to rushing in where other more highly organized beings fear to tread. It is, however, somewhat of a relief to find that in the concluding paragraph Dr. Gasser invalidates hia own conclusions, for having failed to " of which he holds define the origin of " force mind to be a phase, he admits that as a final " The consciresult of his chain of reasoning. of a that ousness transcends knowledge power will be firmly engrafted on the mind." If we " understand "consciousness" and "mind in the is sense this conclusion rational workaday-world if not very satisfying?if, however, we are to take the words iu the Gasserian sense it means " that the feelings of a change of state this, produced by a power of which we can never know anything will be firmly engrafted in a " phase of force, which is neither satisfying nor rational. For the present, it will be perhaps to retain our everyday ideas of that as well of cognizing states and feelings which power to be behind the states and feelings we hold " force " of which to produce the and themselves, " a but mind" is not a phase phenomenal maniWhat that power is, we shall know festation. Till that time all when we know what life is. such writing as this paper on physiological psy" is, as Marvel says, is hut to perplex
chology the
things
he would
explain."
THE TREATMENT OF TUBERCULOSIS.
Dr. Samuel Dixon in an address delivered before the students of the Medico-Chirurgical
College
of
Philadelphia
in
April last,
and
re-
This toxine was somewhat permaturely introduced into the human economy by Professor Koch, with results which were not as satisfactory as had been hoped. It was named " tuberculin." Dr. Dixon, in his present paper, says : " I have not yet felt justified in using tuberculin in man," and he gives as one of his reasons the as yet undetermined factor of the possibility of the production of spores by the tubercle bacillus.
Wishing however to produce immunity against tuberculosis in man, Dr. Dixon was led to con-
sider the conditions of natural immunity which he argues must exist in six-sevenths of the population, this representing the proportion of those exposed to the infection who are not attacked. Bearing this in mind and being much impressed by the fact that gout and tuberculosis do not often occur together, the possibility of a direct antagonism between gout and tuberculosis presented itself to Dr. Dixon's mind, and he accordingly was led to institute a series of experiments upon the reaction of carbamides, uric acid, ureides and related bases, upon the animal economy. As a result of these experiments, Dr. Dixon holds that these carbamides, more especially urea, and the biliary derivative taurine have a markedly beneficial action on tuberculosis of the skin?lupus has been removed by their He concludes by a reference to a vegemeans. table substance which has come into use abroad as a therapeutic agent in cases of tuberculosis, and he considers that the results of his experiments in 1891 with urea and its derivatives lend confirmation to the satisfactory reports of its action. This substance which is called thiosinamine allyt-thiocarbamide is obtained by the combination of ammonia with allyt-thiocarbamide. Dr. Dixon considers that the truth of his theory of changing the soil of the human body with these substances, is now about to be confirmed, and that a new era in the rational treatmeut of tuberculosis of the skin and possibly of the lungs is about to dawn. In view of the present unsatisfactory results obtainable with tuberculosis, this observation is worthy of extension. NEW HOSPITAL FOR CALCUTTA. There is a movement on foot among the more enterprising section' of the Indian medical profession in Calcutta to establish a new hospital in the town which shall bo officered entirely by members of the local profession who are unconnected with Government. It is proposed that the hospital shall be connected with the medical
July
YIDYAS AGAR A HOSPITAL FUND.
1893.]
237
able aggregate of 1,249 beds. Compared to the and maintained without Government aid. Dr. S, C. hospital accommodation in London, or Paris, or area for area and population for populaMukerjee and Dr. Mitra, assisted by a number Vienna, the tion, hospital accommodation in Calcutta of medical men, some of whom hold English seems most really degrees, others of whom are graduates of the There is to be then inadequate. a great need for more clearly Calcutta University, are the leading spirits in is proposed to partiit aud in this hospitals city, this new development. They are obtaining proestablishment of, at mises of support from a number of wealthy ally supply the need by the The Calcutta Medical one more hospital. gentlemen both in Calcutta and the surrounding least, for years. School With existence has been in district, and if matters go on as favourably as the of some of the leading citizens generous help of these they have begun, the efforts gentlemen of Calcutta, the school has become a permanent will be crowned with success. The project is institution. Its conductors and Professors are a if good one, and the new hospital founded on not remunerated for their valuable services. The the lines on which it is proposed at the present honoured the school by Lieutenant-Governor time and if well supported will not only be of last prize-distribution, the chair at the taking it whom is intended, great benefit to those for thus giving indubitable proof of its worth and but it will in a manner meet the aspirations of those Indian medical men who under existing utility. The projectors of the proposed new institution with the conditions fiud themselves debarred from all hos- hospital wish to connect that while supplyCalcutta so Medical that, School, their school that has been
recently established
pital appointments, though qualifications a crying public need, both institutions might being leaders in their ing be also mutually benefited. The new hospital profession. would be a training ground for intending medical practitioners passing out of college, who do not VIDYASAGARA HOSPITAL FUND: entitle them to the hope of
AN APPEAL.
accept Governmelit service and
are
unable to get
hospital practice. Managed under purely Indian by institution would open a auspices, the
One of the greatest blessings, conferred proposed the British Government on this country, is the field for original research, and allow carefully In Indiau the establishment of public hospitals. conducted experiments on indigenous drugs and Feudatory States, they have a Department of an examination conducted scientifically of the Public Charity, from which the poor and helpless and Yunaui or Hakimi systems of mediKaviraji receive regular relief in money or in kind. But cal treatment. But the hospital would be the the credit of ministering relief to the many afflict- greatest blessing to those who, from social or reed with a variety of distempers and diseases bewould rather suffer and die, ligious prejudices, longs almost entirely to the British Government. than enter hospitals, where such prejudices are When it is seen that in every Indian town of not fully respected. The Calcutta Medical School any pretension, there is a Government hospital will at once lend its students and teachers to the or a hospital supported by Government, that new aud both will be twin-institutions. similar institutions are to be met with in many J-he hospital, of the scheme believe that they projectors districts, and that numerous charitable out-door have set forth good and sufficient grounds for an dispensaries supplement the philanthropic work, appeal to the public, aud feel confident ot resome idea may be formed of the immense relief, ceiving a and generous response. They which is thus daily afforded to many hundreds of also think hearty that such a hospital will be the most But thousands of our suffering countrymen. fitting testimonial to the broad sympathy, the though so much has been accomplished, 110 one will active benevolence, the loving heart and the presume to take upon him to say that India lias well-known good Samaritan spirit of the truly had enough of hospital accommodation. Take the great Isvara Chandra Vidyasagara. instance of Calcutta alone. The Metropolis of Mehta, Mahesh Narendra Nath Sen, B. India, according to the latest Census returns, Chandra Nyayaratna, Nilmoney Mitter, Bihas a population, numbering some seven hundred naya Krishna, and Manmatha Nath Mittra, thousand souls. Will it be said hos-
that five many for the medical needs of such a vast population, or that the number is not too few ? And yet there are only five hospitals in Calcutta, aggregating iu their accommodation only 1,249 beds. These beds are distributed thus: The Medical College Hospital, the oldest institution of the kind in this city, with 420 beds ; the Mayo Hospital, the youngest institution so far, With 108 beds; the General Hospital with 238 beds, only for Europeans; the Chandney Hospital with only 16 beds; and the Sealdah Hospital with 467 beds; or totalling in all, the miser-
pitals
Trustees. Biiupendra Nath Basu and Amulya Charan Basu, Honorary Secretaries.
are too
THE PASTEUR
INSTITUTE
IN THE
PUNJ AB.
March, the following asked to join the Committee of the Institute to which we drew attention in
During
gentlemen our s 1
the month of were
last issue
:?(1) Surgeon-Colonel Cleghorn,
Inspector-General
of Civil
Hospitals, Punjab
;
(2 )Brigade-Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel Stephen,
INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.
238
Sanitary Commissioner, Punjab; (3) SurgeouMajor H. S. Browne, Principal, Medical College, Lahore; (4) Captain J. A. Nuun, Principal, Veterinary College, Lahore; (5) E. B. Hankin, Esq., Chemical Examiner and Bacteriologist
North-Western Provinces Government; W. A. Roe. (6) Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel Sialkot; (7) Brigade-General B, Civil-Surgeon, Bimdelkhaud DisCommanding Blood, C.B., The Honorable W. H.Rattigau, Vicetrict ; Chancellor, Punjab University; (9) Khan to the
'(8)
Bahadur
Barjosjee
D.
Patel, Quetta;
their willinguess
to
join
all of whom the Com-
expressed Surgeon-Colonel Richardson, Inspector-
mittee.
General, Civil Hospitals, North-Western Prowas also asked to join, but begged to be excused as he was goiug away ou leave and intended to retire at the end of his leave. He
vinces,
of as much of the scheme expressed his approval said that further he did but rabies, regarding E. W. Parker, Registrar of the o-o. ?Mr.
Chief Court, Lahore, in reply to an invitation to said that the proposals had join the Committee,did not feel qualified to act his sympathy, but on
the
Committee.
Surgeon-Major Ranking,
m.d.,
Officiating
Chemical Examiner, Bengal, has also since sented to join the Committee.
con-
Khan Bahadur Barjosjee D. Patel generously offers the sum of Rs. 1,000 towards a fund for the Institute, and several other wealthy Parsees and natives in Quetta and other parts of Beluch-
promised contributions. meeting was held ou April 22nd
istau have
at Lahore, A of Lahore, Ali Barkat Khan, Bahadur and Khan Sirdar Mahummad Hyat Khan, C.S.I., Seuior Member of Council, Kashmir, and Rai Bahadur Lala Ram Kisheeu, Delhi, were added to the Committee. At the meeting a number of written suggestions by members uuable to atteud were taken iuto consideration as well as the opinions of those present. The following re-
solutions
were
passed
:?
That a Pasteur Institute be established 1. the in Punjab Himalayas for the treatment of conducting bacteriological research.
hydrophobia,
The Honorable TV. H. Rattigan be electPresident of the Committee; Mr. D. P. Masson, of the Punjab Bank, Treasurer; and 2.
ed
Mr.
E.
Kay Robinson,
Gazette, Secretary. 3.
Civil
and
Military
#
That the Committee should hold its next
meeting
at
Simla.
4. That the Secretary should communicate in the name of the Committee with the Supreme and Local Governments with a view to ascerthe scheme. taining how far they would support 5.
That the Pasteur Institute
should
be
the Imperial Bacteriological amalgamated for this purpose the Comthat and Laboratory, to consider Government mittee will invite to
whether garh, it' Simla or
[July
1893.
accessible site than li.otesite in the vicinity of should not be chosen.
some more
possible
some
ICasauli,
this resolution it was that, according to the tables of pointed mean temperature prepared by the Meteorological Department for the Committee, the vicinity of Simla was meteorologically the most suitable locality, and Tara Devi Hill wa3 specially men-
[In
the discussion
on
out
tioned us a favourable site.] 6. That the following amended draft scheme be adopted by the Committee :? It is proposed to establish an Institute in the Punjab, somewhat similar "to the Pasteur InstiThe Pasteur Institute in Paris, to be called tute of India." The object of this institution is primarily for the relief of natives of India, who are unable, from poverty or other causes, to proceed to Paris for treatment after bites of rabid animals, such an institution being urgently needed.
That the Institute should become a reality, it has only to be pointed out that under Mons. Pasteur's system of treatment deaths, after bites from rabid animals, have been reduced from 80 in every 100, to little more than one death in every 200 bitten, and this in spite of the long delay that occurs, owing to distance from Paris, before many cases can be treated. A second use for such an institution would be to carry on independent bacteriological research, in which field of utility to India and the world at large no limit can be placed upon its
possibilities. Thirdly,
teaching Institute,
as a
out that to enable tioners to study in a
pointed
it may be
selected native practiproper aud scientific way the causes, course, aud methods of preventing epidemic disease amongst the cattle of the villagers among whom their duty takes them, is the
only
means
whereby
iu cattle may be in as this system has there is every
of
knowledge
the
enormous
annual losses
degree prevented ; aud proved successful in France,
some
reason to suppose the extension of a similar kind will be equally in India.
advantageous In return, therefore, for all donations aud
aunual
subscriptions the Institute, besides carrying on important scientific inquiries, will provide for the public:? (1) Treatment gratis, including, if necessary, travelling expenses to aud fro for every person bitten by
a
rabid animal.
(2) Teaching gratis, as vacancies occur, to sent by the principals of ve*
selected students teriuary colleges. It cannot be cost to start the
apparatus
'
estimated exactly what it would
laboratory
until it is known
Institute shall be
designed,
with the neoessary on what scale the and this'caunot' be
July
LONDON LETTER.
1893.]
known until the views of the different Governments anil the public have been ascertained; but the building must be located 011 some accessible part of the hills, where the laboratory must be situated 011 account of the temperature required to perfect the virus (70 F.) It is believed that a suitable site can be easily found in the hills near Kasauli or Simla, and Iiis Highness the Maharajah of Patiala would doubtless grant facilities for the erection of a building, if one could not be purchased. The amount to support the Institute, when has been estimated at about Us. 3,500 per mensem, but if Government will give the services of the medical officers, this estimate can be reduced, and the monthly charge thus distributed over the whole couutry would scarcely be felt. The essential feature, however of the working of the Institute will be that the travelling and other expenses of poor patients will be paid by the Institute.
established,
That the followiug members of Commitbe appointed a Sub-Committee, to draw up a suitable appeal to the public in the name .of the Committee for subscriptions, and to take such other steps as may be necessary to obtain the funds required :?Honorable W. PI. Rattigan, 7.
tee
Surgeon-Colonel Cleghorn, Surgeon-Lieutenant
Colonel
Roe,
nary-Captain
K. B. Barkat Ali J. A. Nunn and E.
Khan, Veteri-
Kay
Robinson.
8. That the Committee arrange for lectures to be delivered at Simla and the head-quarters of the various Local Governments ou behalf of the scheme.
LONDON LETTER. (From
our
Special
Correspondent.)
After a drought which lasted for about 80 days we have had a succession of very welcome and refreshing showers, which have cleared and cooled the air considerably and greatly improved agricultural prospects. The public health is good. Cholera has not as yet showed much sign of recrudescence on the Continent, and the dread of an autumnal invasion of England is becoming less acute. Professor Virchow declared at a recent meeting of the Berlin Medical Society, that a cholera epidemic is not likely to break out anywhere in Germany this year. The disease Still lingers in the Russian province of Podolia, and a few cases are reported from Paris and North-Western France. I observe in to-day's papers that an undoubted death from Asiatic cholera took place in Hamburg 011 Saturday last. Our Port Sanitary authorities are fully alive to the necessity of vigilance, and in concert with the Local Government Board are maintaining their agencies of inspection and
239
detection in full force and of on
May
for for
I
accompanied
a
vigour.
deputation
Mr. Campbell Bannerman,
On the 15th which waited
Secretary^of State
War, and Lord Kimberley, Secretary of State India, for the purpose of representing certain grievances and desiderata connected with the Army Medical Staff. The deputation consisted of several medical M. Ps., Mr. Ernest Hart, and other members of the Parliamentary Bills Committee of the British Medical Association, officials of the Royal College of Physicians and Sur geons of Ireland, and a number of retired medical officers belonging to the Medical Staff
and Indian Medical Service. The wants and wishes of the service were clearly and forcibly expounded by several members ofthe deputation, aud patiently listened to by both officials who promised togive the matters under reference careful consideration. There is a brief report of the proceedings in the British Medical Journal of May 20th, which has 110 doubt been perused with interest by most of your readers. I need not, therefore, burden your pages with any detail of what was done and said on the occasion. The memorandum prepared by the Parliamentary Bills Committee, which is printed on page 1047 of the 13. M. J., and which you might perhaps reproduce, sets forth ten subjects of hardship for reform concisely, and points out the main reasons for desiring relief or change. These ten questions refer mainly to the Army Medical Staff; but the Indian Medical Service must always be deeply interested in any matter which affects the status and well-being of the sister service. There is a strong and growing feeling in favour of converting the Medical Staff into a medical corps, and this constituted the first and most pressing prayer of the deputation. There is also a very decided conviction both among medical men and the public that the new compound medical military titles are cumbersome and useless, some of them absolutely ridiculous. The thirst for purely military titles is growing keener The probabilities are among medical officers. that a change will take place sooner or later; but whether that change will convert SurgeonCaptain Jones into Captain and Surgeon Jones or Captain Jones, Royal Medical Corps, it is difficult to say. The most substantial grievance represented was the extension of tour of foreign service from five to six years, and there seems every reason to hope that the statns-quoante will be restored and the uupopular and " " removed. one year more The subject of nursing in India has
deadly a
matter of keen interest and
long been philanthropic ef-
fort both in this country and in India itself. Unspeakable benefits to the sick in hospital, to the ?European soldiers, and to the inhabitants of large towns and their neighbourhood have resulted from the action of the various organizations and agencies which have striven to
supply
the want of skilled nurses for Europeaus and natives in India. But there still remains much to be done in order specially to bring this imwithin reach of Europeans living portant benefit " and particularly of those who in "up-country these hard times cannot afford on occasion of sickness to pay for the services of professional nurses summoned from a distance. To meet the necessities of such persons, the "Up-country Nursing " Association for Europeans in India has been to this excellent instipress orgauized. I wish tution upon the attention of Civil Surgeons serving in Upper and Central India, Burmah, Assam, and other places where nurses are difficult and costly to get, with a view to local effort being initiated in order to co-operate with the Association. The office-bearers, of the Association whose President is H. R. H. the Duchess of Counaught, include the names of many ladies and gentlemen well-known for their high position in society, and the devotion of their lives to philanthropic work, many of whom have spent distinguished careers in India. H. Majesty has graciously consented to become Patron of the Association and has contributed ?25 to its funds. From a circular issued by the Association I gather that? " There are at present some half-dozen nursing organizations at work in India, such as the Clewer, Wantage, and All Saints Sisterhoods, and the Indian Nursing Service for Soldiers, to which Lady Roberts has rendered valuable assisAt Poona, in the Bombay Presidency, tance. there is an "Up-Couutry Nursing Association" working on co-operative principles in conjunction with the Wantage Sisters and the Sassoon Hospital, which has already benefited many iu that part of India. But none of these organizations have sufficient funds to enable them to undertake cases far from their immediate cenThese centres?Calcutta, Bombay, Madtres. ras, and Poona?being few in number, a glance at the map will show what a large proportion of
India, commonly described
as
'
up-country,' is
with trained
nurses. totally unprovided " Nurses are frequently unobtainable for the following reasons:?Either (1) Because the number of nurses in India being most inade-
left
quate, 110 nurse is available for a distant case. (2) Because a nurse's travelling expenses to a distance, iu addition to her fees, Rs. 150 (about ?10) per month, put a prohibitive price on her services to any but the highest paid officials. (3) Because a large proportion of patients canuot afford
to pay at all.
overcome these difficulties, and to meet the great and growing demand for nurses, the ultimate objects of this Association are:? "(1) To orgauize a more adequate supply of nurses which shall be at the command of Europeaus of all classes in up-couutry stations and elsewhere, and "
[Jolt
INDIAN ;MEDICAL GAZETTE.
240
To
1893.
(2) To this eiid to enroll every European resident, whether civil servants, political, or military officials, merchants, engineers, planters, "
and other managers and tlieir employes, members, aud yearly subscribers of a comparatively small sum, to branches of the Association in their own district, thereby entitling them to the services of a nurse in illness at a rate to their means. proportionate " It is anticipated that this co-operative system will be in great measure self-supporting. But it is impossible that it should be so altogether, owing to the large class of European residents in India who would be unable to pay more than their yearly subscriptions, and a reduced or nominal fee for the services of a nurse. " The scheme of the Association is to begin gradually by planting out nurses iu small numbers where the need seems greatest under the direction and control of existing organizations, such as nursing sisterhoods and hospitals already administered by competent matrons and medical men. By this system it will not be necessary to wait for the accumulation of a large capital, and subscribers can feel certain that their money will at once be applied to the object for which it is given. Later on, as funds increase, the Association hopes to depend, where necessary, on its own independent machinery. Details of administration will necessarily vary in different districts, and will be worked out by local committees of residents iu India. " Wards would be available for Europeans in several native hospitals up-country if nurses There are also huge tracts of were obtainable. over the country length and breadth of which are scattered, Englishmen and their families who can never command a trained nurse at their need
railwny as
unless
some
organization places
reasonable distance,
at a
one within reasonable cost."
a
The Association has already collected a consum of money aud obtained the promise of more in furtherance of its excellent objects. What is wanted now is the formation of local committees in Indian up-country centres to cooperate with the home organization. Without these, the efforts of the latter will be futile ; but with some help and encouragement locally, the Association is in a position to supply moral and material assistance in abundance. I trust, therefore, that Civil Surgeons who are deeply interested in the question of nursing will take the matter up vigorously and practically. 31s* May 1893.
siderable
cutta, and Honorary Surgeon to the Viceroy, have been appointed Companions of the Iudiau
Empire.
CHOLERA INOCULATIONS.
Mous. Haffkine, with the assistance of Mr. have now inoculated over 7,000 people. In Patiala Mons. Haffkine inoculated the bro-
Hankin,
ther of the Maharajah and his family, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, of Justice, and the Commander-in-Chief, besides over 2,000 troops and Mons. Haffkine is now at Simla 485 prisoners. where he is carrying on more inoculations. The time has now come, we think, when the Government of India should give to Mons. Haffkine greater facilities for testing the value of his inoculatious. This, we believe, can be best done in those jails and other institutions in Bengal which are visited by cholera every year. MEDICAL EDUCATION IN BOMBAY. In au address delivered before the Bombay Medical Union at its annual meeting in April, Dr. Bhal Chandra Krishna, President of the Union,
summed
up the
principal
events with which the
Union had been directly concerned during the year. It appears to have been a year of contro-
versy between the medical profession in Bombay. Dr. Bhal Chandra Krishna does not pour oil on the troubled waters, for much of his thesis consists of an attack on Dr. Gray, late Principal of the Grant Medical College. This attitude is to be deplored, for there is much in the address which deserves attention, and which demands the sympathy of those desirous of seeing medical education in Bombay in as perfect a state as
possible. CONTAGIOUS DISEASES ACT.
The Commission of which Mr. Denzil Ibbetson is president and Deputy-Surgeon-General Cleghorn, Major Wilson, and Maulavi Samiula Khan Bahadur are members, is still engaged in hearing evidence bearing on the allegations to which we refer in our leading article. The allegations are :??
1. That within each cantonment systematic is made by or with the sanction of the military .authorities : (a) for the residence therein ot native women for the use exclusively of British soldiers ; (b) for the compulsory examination of such women at prescribed periods by European or native medical officers; (c) for the compulsory detention in hospital of any of such women under the orders of the examining officers ; (d) with penal consequences in case of disobedience to such orders in the form of arrest, fine, imprisonment, or expulsion from the cantonment.
provision
Jplsdiral Jfam HONOURS TO MEDICAL MEN OF INDIAN SERVICE. Surgeon-Colonel A. Hileon, late InspectorGeneral of Civil Hospitals, Bengal, and Sur-
July
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS.
1893.]
established under the abovementioned Acts, aud the regulations made thereunder, are systematically used for the purpose of maintaining an established system of licensed vice, and the compulsory examination of registered women, within the limits of the 2. That the
hospitals
cantonments.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. The following is the list of students who passed the final or Diploma Examination of the undermentioned Medical Schools in 1893, arranged in order of merit. Campbell Medical School. 11. Tripuresh Ch. Brama. 1. Taraprasanna Sarasati. 12. Amaresh Chandra Roy. 2. Mrs. Kadambini MukerAtal Behari Sirkar. 13. jee.* 14. Umesh Chandra Sirkar. 3. Sreemutty Susila Debi.* 15. Fakir Das Banerjee. 4. Sreemutty Banotosini 16. Hrisliikesh Das. Chunder.* Hrisikesh Mozumdar. 17. 5. Gokul Vihari Maitra. i Jadu Nath Chakrabutty. 18. G. Jella Rahman Miya. I ! 19. Upendranath Chaudhry. 7. Purna Chundra Salia. 8. Sreemanta Chandra Sil. ! 20. Nirad Chandra Bose. 21. Sreemutty Lakhimony 9. Kasiswara Roy. ' Devi.* 10. Syed Muktased Hossein.
|
*
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.
Female students.
Dacca Medical School. 15. Tarini Charan Biswas. Sarat Chandra Bhatta1G. Aishini Kumar Kar. charjee. 17. Benod B. Chakravarti. Sarat Ch. Chakravarti. 18. Ram Chandra Gope. Surendra Kumar Datta. 19. Chandra Nath Pal. Kasiswar Chakravarti. 20. Amrita Lall Guha. Jagatbandhu Roy. 21. LalitM. Chakravarti. Rash Behary Ghosh. 22. Mohim Chandra Dutta. Chandra K. Chakravarti. 23. Sasi Chandra Chaudhri. Umesh Chandra Gupta. 24. Sarat Chandra Basalc. Sita Nath Banerjee. 25. Baikant C. Chakravarti. Gagan Ch. Karmokar. 26. Tarini Kanta Das. Banku Behary Salia. 27. Ramdullab Chakravarti. Madhu S. Chaudhry. 28. Bijoy Nath Bhaduri. Rajendra Kumar Bose. Raj Kumar Das.
Cuttack Medical School. 9. Buhban Mohan Missel". 1. Blmbanananda Naik. 10. Mohendra Nath Das. 2. Devendra N. Adhikary. 11. Lingraj Dhora. 3. Gopal Chandra Pal. 12. Gopal Chandra Dey. 4. Kartick Chandra Kur 13. Sreemati Bajo. Mohapatra. 14. Asliutosh Bose. 5. Woomaprosad Mohanty. 15. Zoohooroodin Khan. 6. Peary Lall Dutt. 1G. Sheik Kadeer Bux. 7. Mohendra N. Banerjee. 17. Wooma Ch. Panigrahy. 8. Syed Exram Rusull. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
Temple Medical School, Patna. 10. Lalit Mohan Mukerjee. 11. Mahomed Yusuf. 12. Gholam Panjatan. 13. Abdar Rahaman. 14. Asliutosh Chakravarti. 15. Syed Ali Mahomed. , Rajani Kanta Bagclii. j 16. Wali Ahmed. Hafiz Mahd. Israil Huq. 17. Syed Muzher Ali. Abdul Kakim. I 18. Ishan Chandra Das. Slieik Ertiza Hossein. Bepin Behari Bose. Behari Lall Mozumdar. Kartic Chandra Gliose. Mashuq Ali Khan. Bliudeb Ch. Ghosal.
|
Naqpur Students of the above School. I 3. Balwant Luxman. | 4. Bhagwal Deem Misir. 5. Chandra Bhan.
1. Laxman Bapoji. 2. Rama Gadi.
GRANT MEDICAL COLLEGE. With reference to the Memorial to the Bombay Government relating to appointments to the Grant Medical College, the following reply has been received:? " I am directed to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, dated the 10th of January 1893,
to the address of the
235
General
Department, subdated 9th January 1893 from the Chairman and Secretaries of the Managing Committee appointed at a meeting of the local medical profession, held on the 12th November hist, praying that the reforms lately introduced by Government as regards appointments in the Grant Medical College may be pursued and completed, and that the present insuperable bar in the way of qualified local graduates and practitioners, not members of the Indian Medical Service, being appointed to places in the College and Hospital tendered less absolute, &c. In reply I am to observe that the first and second resolutions passed at the meeting, and the first and the third explanatory heads in the Memorial,appear to be directed against the orders of the Secretary of State, who has scheduled certain appointments at the Grant Medical College and at certain Government hospitals for officers of the Indian Medical Service. Whilst recognizing that the desire of the petitioners to have these appointments thrown open to them and the medical profession generally is, from their point of view, natural and deserving of sympathy, His Excellency in Council is compelled to point out that it is not in the power of a Provincial Government to change the above system. His Excellency in Council is not therefore in a position to discuss, with a view to any practical result, the arguments advanced in the Memorial iu support of the resolutions, but he is decidedly of opinion that the allegation in the first resolution that the system is mischievous in principle and practice is unwarranted. As regards the third resolution, and the second explanatory head, it appears to His Excellency in Council that the best proof of the desire of Government to adhere to the principle laid down in Government Resolution No. 19791, dated 9th November 1888, is that it has been departed from only in the case of short acting vacancies due to privilege or sick leave. The first occasion was, when owing to a sick leave vacancy in 28th March 1890, Surgeon-Captain Childe had to be transferred from the chair of Pathology to that of Physiology, and previously to the occasion referred to by the petitioners, Surgeon-Captain Childe had twice during privilege leave vacancies acted as Chemical Analyser. On the occasion in question the arrangements made appeared to His Excellency in Council to be the best possible, and he is iuformed by the Surgeon-General that they worked well and that no department was disorganized. His Excellency in Couucil has every desire to adhere, as far as possible, to the principle laid down in Government Resolution No. 1979, dated 9th November 1888, but occasional vacancies cannot be avoided, and when they do occur, it may not always be possible to avoid temporary transfers," mitting
a
Memorial,
INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.
236
[July
1893.
ported in the Philadelphia Times and Register ot 29tli, propounds a new remedy for tuberApril In the Medical Record. (New York, May 6th, culosis. Dr. Dixon, as our readers will remem1893), Dr. Hermann Gasser contributes an arti- ber, claims to have anticipated Koch in the discle on physiological psychology in which he covery of the properties of the toxine produced makes an effort to reduce all the phenomena of by the tubercle bacillus in securing immunity. mind" to the terms of matter. He would in fact PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY.
"
have us believe that mental processes are like heat only a "mode of motion." There is nothing in the article which has not been stated before by the masters of metaphysical reasoning. The whole substratum of Dr. Gasser's arguments which extend to seven long columns of type is this," whatever goes into the organism as physical force must come out again as physical force," and upon this he proceeds to build up an elaborate house of cards, the stability of which may be gathered from this one statement alone: " The only distinction between a portion of 4 what is called inert matter,' and a worm or even a man, is only difference of degree of differentiation." "When we are asked to meekly acquiesce in" such a statement as this, what matan ters it that organism is to be looked upon henceforth as a 'molecular whirlpool,' or that ' ' consciousness is only a name for the feelings of the changes that are either pleasurable or painful." We are surely tempted to reflect that certain persons are given to rushing in where other more highly organized beings fear to tread. It is, however, somewhat of a relief to find that in the concluding paragraph Dr. Gasser invalidates hia own conclusions, for having failed to " of which he holds define the origin of " force mind to be a phase, he admits that as a final " The consciresult of his chain of reasoning. of a that ousness transcends knowledge power will be firmly engrafted on the mind." If we " understand "consciousness" and "mind in the is sense this conclusion rational workaday-world if not very satisfying?if, however, we are to take the words iu the Gasserian sense it means " that the feelings of a change of state this, produced by a power of which we can never know anything will be firmly engrafted in a " phase of force, which is neither satisfying nor rational. For the present, it will be perhaps to retain our everyday ideas of that as well of cognizing states and feelings which power to be behind the states and feelings we hold " force " of which to produce the and themselves, " a but mind" is not a phase phenomenal maniWhat that power is, we shall know festation. Till that time all when we know what life is. such writing as this paper on physiological psy" is, as Marvel says, is hut to perplex
chology the
things
he would
explain."
THE TREATMENT OF TUBERCULOSIS.
Dr. Samuel Dixon in an address delivered before the students of the Medico-Chirurgical
College
of
Philadelphia
in
April last,
and
re-
This toxine was somewhat permaturely introduced into the human economy by Professor Koch, with results which were not as satisfactory as had been hoped. It was named " tuberculin." Dr. Dixon, in his present paper, says : " I have not yet felt justified in using tuberculin in man," and he gives as one of his reasons the as yet undetermined factor of the possibility of the production of spores by the tubercle bacillus.
Wishing however to produce immunity against tuberculosis in man, Dr. Dixon was led to con-
sider the conditions of natural immunity which he argues must exist in six-sevenths of the population, this representing the proportion of those exposed to the infection who are not attacked. Bearing this in mind and being much impressed by the fact that gout and tuberculosis do not often occur together, the possibility of a direct antagonism between gout and tuberculosis presented itself to Dr. Dixon's mind, and he accordingly was led to institute a series of experiments upon the reaction of carbamides, uric acid, ureides and related bases, upon the animal economy. As a result of these experiments, Dr. Dixon holds that these carbamides, more especially urea, and the biliary derivative taurine have a markedly beneficial action on tuberculosis of the skin?lupus has been removed by their He concludes by a reference to a vegemeans. table substance which has come into use abroad as a therapeutic agent in cases of tuberculosis, and he considers that the results of his experiments in 1891 with urea and its derivatives lend confirmation to the satisfactory reports of its action. This substance which is called thiosinamine allyt-thiocarbamide is obtained by the combination of ammonia with allyt-thiocarbamide. Dr. Dixon considers that the truth of his theory of changing the soil of the human body with these substances, is now about to be confirmed, and that a new era in the rational treatmeut of tuberculosis of the skin and possibly of the lungs is about to dawn. In view of the present unsatisfactory results obtainable with tuberculosis, this observation is worthy of extension. NEW HOSPITAL FOR CALCUTTA. There is a movement on foot among the more enterprising section' of the Indian medical profession in Calcutta to establish a new hospital in the town which shall bo officered entirely by members of the local profession who are unconnected with Government. It is proposed that the hospital shall be connected with the medical
July
YIDYAS AGAR A HOSPITAL FUND.
1893.]
237
able aggregate of 1,249 beds. Compared to the and maintained without Government aid. Dr. S, C. hospital accommodation in London, or Paris, or area for area and population for populaMukerjee and Dr. Mitra, assisted by a number Vienna, the tion, hospital accommodation in Calcutta of medical men, some of whom hold English seems most really degrees, others of whom are graduates of the There is to be then inadequate. a great need for more clearly Calcutta University, are the leading spirits in is proposed to partiit aud in this hospitals city, this new development. They are obtaining proestablishment of, at mises of support from a number of wealthy ally supply the need by the The Calcutta Medical one more hospital. gentlemen both in Calcutta and the surrounding least, for years. School With existence has been in district, and if matters go on as favourably as the of some of the leading citizens generous help of these they have begun, the efforts gentlemen of Calcutta, the school has become a permanent will be crowned with success. The project is institution. Its conductors and Professors are a if good one, and the new hospital founded on not remunerated for their valuable services. The the lines on which it is proposed at the present honoured the school by Lieutenant-Governor time and if well supported will not only be of last prize-distribution, the chair at the taking it whom is intended, great benefit to those for thus giving indubitable proof of its worth and but it will in a manner meet the aspirations of those Indian medical men who under existing utility. The projectors of the proposed new institution with the conditions fiud themselves debarred from all hos- hospital wish to connect that while supplyCalcutta so Medical that, School, their school that has been
recently established
pital appointments, though qualifications a crying public need, both institutions might being leaders in their ing be also mutually benefited. The new hospital profession. would be a training ground for intending medical practitioners passing out of college, who do not VIDYASAGARA HOSPITAL FUND: entitle them to the hope of
AN APPEAL.
accept Governmelit service and
are
unable to get
hospital practice. Managed under purely Indian by institution would open a auspices, the
One of the greatest blessings, conferred proposed the British Government on this country, is the field for original research, and allow carefully In Indiau the establishment of public hospitals. conducted experiments on indigenous drugs and Feudatory States, they have a Department of an examination conducted scientifically of the Public Charity, from which the poor and helpless and Yunaui or Hakimi systems of mediKaviraji receive regular relief in money or in kind. But cal treatment. But the hospital would be the the credit of ministering relief to the many afflict- greatest blessing to those who, from social or reed with a variety of distempers and diseases bewould rather suffer and die, ligious prejudices, longs almost entirely to the British Government. than enter hospitals, where such prejudices are When it is seen that in every Indian town of not fully respected. The Calcutta Medical School any pretension, there is a Government hospital will at once lend its students and teachers to the or a hospital supported by Government, that new aud both will be twin-institutions. similar institutions are to be met with in many J-he hospital, of the scheme believe that they projectors districts, and that numerous charitable out-door have set forth good and sufficient grounds for an dispensaries supplement the philanthropic work, appeal to the public, aud feel confident ot resome idea may be formed of the immense relief, ceiving a and generous response. They which is thus daily afforded to many hundreds of also think hearty that such a hospital will be the most But thousands of our suffering countrymen. fitting testimonial to the broad sympathy, the though so much has been accomplished, 110 one will active benevolence, the loving heart and the presume to take upon him to say that India lias well-known good Samaritan spirit of the truly had enough of hospital accommodation. Take the great Isvara Chandra Vidyasagara. instance of Calcutta alone. The Metropolis of Mehta, Mahesh Narendra Nath Sen, B. India, according to the latest Census returns, Chandra Nyayaratna, Nilmoney Mitter, Bihas a population, numbering some seven hundred naya Krishna, and Manmatha Nath Mittra, thousand souls. Will it be said hos-
that five many for the medical needs of such a vast population, or that the number is not too few ? And yet there are only five hospitals in Calcutta, aggregating iu their accommodation only 1,249 beds. These beds are distributed thus: The Medical College Hospital, the oldest institution of the kind in this city, with 420 beds ; the Mayo Hospital, the youngest institution so far, With 108 beds; the General Hospital with 238 beds, only for Europeans; the Chandney Hospital with only 16 beds; and the Sealdah Hospital with 467 beds; or totalling in all, the miser-
pitals
Trustees. Biiupendra Nath Basu and Amulya Charan Basu, Honorary Secretaries.
are too
THE PASTEUR
INSTITUTE
IN THE
PUNJ AB.
March, the following asked to join the Committee of the Institute to which we drew attention in
During
gentlemen our s 1
the month of were
last issue
:?(1) Surgeon-Colonel Cleghorn,
Inspector-General
of Civil
Hospitals, Punjab
;
(2 )Brigade-Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel Stephen,
INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.
238
Sanitary Commissioner, Punjab; (3) SurgeouMajor H. S. Browne, Principal, Medical College, Lahore; (4) Captain J. A. Nuun, Principal, Veterinary College, Lahore; (5) E. B. Hankin, Esq., Chemical Examiner and Bacteriologist
North-Western Provinces Government; W. A. Roe. (6) Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel Sialkot; (7) Brigade-General B, Civil-Surgeon, Bimdelkhaud DisCommanding Blood, C.B., The Honorable W. H.Rattigau, Vicetrict ; Chancellor, Punjab University; (9) Khan to the
'(8)
Bahadur
Barjosjee
D.
Patel, Quetta;
their willinguess
to
join
all of whom the Com-
expressed Surgeon-Colonel Richardson, Inspector-
mittee.
General, Civil Hospitals, North-Western Prowas also asked to join, but begged to be excused as he was goiug away ou leave and intended to retire at the end of his leave. He
vinces,
of as much of the scheme expressed his approval said that further he did but rabies, regarding E. W. Parker, Registrar of the o-o. ?Mr.
Chief Court, Lahore, in reply to an invitation to said that the proposals had join the Committee,did not feel qualified to act his sympathy, but on
the
Committee.
Surgeon-Major Ranking,
m.d.,
Officiating
Chemical Examiner, Bengal, has also since sented to join the Committee.
con-
Khan Bahadur Barjosjee D. Patel generously offers the sum of Rs. 1,000 towards a fund for the Institute, and several other wealthy Parsees and natives in Quetta and other parts of Beluch-
promised contributions. meeting was held ou April 22nd
istau have
at Lahore, A of Lahore, Ali Barkat Khan, Bahadur and Khan Sirdar Mahummad Hyat Khan, C.S.I., Seuior Member of Council, Kashmir, and Rai Bahadur Lala Ram Kisheeu, Delhi, were added to the Committee. At the meeting a number of written suggestions by members uuable to atteud were taken iuto consideration as well as the opinions of those present. The following re-
solutions
were
passed
:?
That a Pasteur Institute be established 1. the in Punjab Himalayas for the treatment of conducting bacteriological research.
hydrophobia,
The Honorable TV. H. Rattigan be electPresident of the Committee; Mr. D. P. Masson, of the Punjab Bank, Treasurer; and 2.
ed
Mr.
E.
Kay Robinson,
Gazette, Secretary. 3.
Civil
and
Military
#
That the Committee should hold its next
meeting
at
Simla.
4. That the Secretary should communicate in the name of the Committee with the Supreme and Local Governments with a view to ascerthe scheme. taining how far they would support 5.
That the Pasteur Institute
should
be
the Imperial Bacteriological amalgamated for this purpose the Comthat and Laboratory, to consider Government mittee will invite to
whether garh, it' Simla or
[July
1893.
accessible site than li.otesite in the vicinity of should not be chosen.
some more
possible
some
ICasauli,
this resolution it was that, according to the tables of pointed mean temperature prepared by the Meteorological Department for the Committee, the vicinity of Simla was meteorologically the most suitable locality, and Tara Devi Hill wa3 specially men-
[In
the discussion
on
out
tioned us a favourable site.] 6. That the following amended draft scheme be adopted by the Committee :? It is proposed to establish an Institute in the Punjab, somewhat similar "to the Pasteur InstiThe Pasteur Institute in Paris, to be called tute of India." The object of this institution is primarily for the relief of natives of India, who are unable, from poverty or other causes, to proceed to Paris for treatment after bites of rabid animals, such an institution being urgently needed.
That the Institute should become a reality, it has only to be pointed out that under Mons. Pasteur's system of treatment deaths, after bites from rabid animals, have been reduced from 80 in every 100, to little more than one death in every 200 bitten, and this in spite of the long delay that occurs, owing to distance from Paris, before many cases can be treated. A second use for such an institution would be to carry on independent bacteriological research, in which field of utility to India and the world at large no limit can be placed upon its
possibilities. Thirdly,
teaching Institute,
as a
out that to enable tioners to study in a
pointed
it may be
selected native practiproper aud scientific way the causes, course, aud methods of preventing epidemic disease amongst the cattle of the villagers among whom their duty takes them, is the
only
means
whereby
iu cattle may be in as this system has there is every
of
knowledge
the
enormous
annual losses
degree prevented ; aud proved successful in France,
some
reason to suppose the extension of a similar kind will be equally in India.
advantageous In return, therefore, for all donations aud
aunual
subscriptions the Institute, besides carrying on important scientific inquiries, will provide for the public:? (1) Treatment gratis, including, if necessary, travelling expenses to aud fro for every person bitten by
a
rabid animal.
(2) Teaching gratis, as vacancies occur, to sent by the principals of ve*
selected students teriuary colleges. It cannot be cost to start the
apparatus
'
estimated exactly what it would
laboratory
until it is known
Institute shall be
designed,
with the neoessary on what scale the and this'caunot' be
July
LONDON LETTER.
1893.]
known until the views of the different Governments anil the public have been ascertained; but the building must be located 011 some accessible part of the hills, where the laboratory must be situated 011 account of the temperature required to perfect the virus (70 F.) It is believed that a suitable site can be easily found in the hills near Kasauli or Simla, and Iiis Highness the Maharajah of Patiala would doubtless grant facilities for the erection of a building, if one could not be purchased. The amount to support the Institute, when has been estimated at about Us. 3,500 per mensem, but if Government will give the services of the medical officers, this estimate can be reduced, and the monthly charge thus distributed over the whole couutry would scarcely be felt. The essential feature, however of the working of the Institute will be that the travelling and other expenses of poor patients will be paid by the Institute.
established,
That the followiug members of Commitbe appointed a Sub-Committee, to draw up a suitable appeal to the public in the name .of the Committee for subscriptions, and to take such other steps as may be necessary to obtain the funds required :?Honorable W. PI. Rattigan, 7.
tee
Surgeon-Colonel Cleghorn, Surgeon-Lieutenant
Colonel
Roe,
nary-Captain
K. B. Barkat Ali J. A. Nunn and E.
Khan, Veteri-
Kay
Robinson.
8. That the Committee arrange for lectures to be delivered at Simla and the head-quarters of the various Local Governments ou behalf of the scheme.
LONDON LETTER. (From
our
Special
Correspondent.)
After a drought which lasted for about 80 days we have had a succession of very welcome and refreshing showers, which have cleared and cooled the air considerably and greatly improved agricultural prospects. The public health is good. Cholera has not as yet showed much sign of recrudescence on the Continent, and the dread of an autumnal invasion of England is becoming less acute. Professor Virchow declared at a recent meeting of the Berlin Medical Society, that a cholera epidemic is not likely to break out anywhere in Germany this year. The disease Still lingers in the Russian province of Podolia, and a few cases are reported from Paris and North-Western France. I observe in to-day's papers that an undoubted death from Asiatic cholera took place in Hamburg 011 Saturday last. Our Port Sanitary authorities are fully alive to the necessity of vigilance, and in concert with the Local Government Board are maintaining their agencies of inspection and
239
detection in full force and of on
May
for for
I
accompanied
a
vigour.
deputation
Mr. Campbell Bannerman,
On the 15th which waited
Secretary^of State
War, and Lord Kimberley, Secretary of State India, for the purpose of representing certain grievances and desiderata connected with the Army Medical Staff. The deputation consisted of several medical M. Ps., Mr. Ernest Hart, and other members of the Parliamentary Bills Committee of the British Medical Association, officials of the Royal College of Physicians and Sur geons of Ireland, and a number of retired medical officers belonging to the Medical Staff
and Indian Medical Service. The wants and wishes of the service were clearly and forcibly expounded by several members ofthe deputation, aud patiently listened to by both officials who promised togive the matters under reference careful consideration. There is a brief report of the proceedings in the British Medical Journal of May 20th, which has 110 doubt been perused with interest by most of your readers. I need not, therefore, burden your pages with any detail of what was done and said on the occasion. The memorandum prepared by the Parliamentary Bills Committee, which is printed on page 1047 of the 13. M. J., and which you might perhaps reproduce, sets forth ten subjects of hardship for reform concisely, and points out the main reasons for desiring relief or change. These ten questions refer mainly to the Army Medical Staff; but the Indian Medical Service must always be deeply interested in any matter which affects the status and well-being of the sister service. There is a strong and growing feeling in favour of converting the Medical Staff into a medical corps, and this constituted the first and most pressing prayer of the deputation. There is also a very decided conviction both among medical men and the public that the new compound medical military titles are cumbersome and useless, some of them absolutely ridiculous. The thirst for purely military titles is growing keener The probabilities are among medical officers. that a change will take place sooner or later; but whether that change will convert SurgeonCaptain Jones into Captain and Surgeon Jones or Captain Jones, Royal Medical Corps, it is difficult to say. The most substantial grievance represented was the extension of tour of foreign service from five to six years, and there seems every reason to hope that the statns-quoante will be restored and the uupopular and " " removed. one year more The subject of nursing in India has
deadly a
matter of keen interest and
long been philanthropic ef-
fort both in this country and in India itself. Unspeakable benefits to the sick in hospital, to the ?European soldiers, and to the inhabitants of large towns and their neighbourhood have resulted from the action of the various organizations and agencies which have striven to
supply
the want of skilled nurses for Europeaus and natives in India. But there still remains much to be done in order specially to bring this imwithin reach of Europeans living portant benefit " and particularly of those who in "up-country these hard times cannot afford on occasion of sickness to pay for the services of professional nurses summoned from a distance. To meet the necessities of such persons, the "Up-country Nursing " Association for Europeans in India has been to this excellent instipress orgauized. I wish tution upon the attention of Civil Surgeons serving in Upper and Central India, Burmah, Assam, and other places where nurses are difficult and costly to get, with a view to local effort being initiated in order to co-operate with the Association. The office-bearers, of the Association whose President is H. R. H. the Duchess of Counaught, include the names of many ladies and gentlemen well-known for their high position in society, and the devotion of their lives to philanthropic work, many of whom have spent distinguished careers in India. H. Majesty has graciously consented to become Patron of the Association and has contributed ?25 to its funds. From a circular issued by the Association I gather that? " There are at present some half-dozen nursing organizations at work in India, such as the Clewer, Wantage, and All Saints Sisterhoods, and the Indian Nursing Service for Soldiers, to which Lady Roberts has rendered valuable assisAt Poona, in the Bombay Presidency, tance. there is an "Up-Couutry Nursing Association" working on co-operative principles in conjunction with the Wantage Sisters and the Sassoon Hospital, which has already benefited many iu that part of India. But none of these organizations have sufficient funds to enable them to undertake cases far from their immediate cenThese centres?Calcutta, Bombay, Madtres. ras, and Poona?being few in number, a glance at the map will show what a large proportion of
India, commonly described
as
'
up-country,' is
with trained
nurses. totally unprovided " Nurses are frequently unobtainable for the following reasons:?Either (1) Because the number of nurses in India being most inade-
left
quate, 110 nurse is available for a distant case. (2) Because a nurse's travelling expenses to a distance, iu addition to her fees, Rs. 150 (about ?10) per month, put a prohibitive price on her services to any but the highest paid officials. (3) Because a large proportion of patients canuot afford
to pay at all.
overcome these difficulties, and to meet the great and growing demand for nurses, the ultimate objects of this Association are:? "(1) To orgauize a more adequate supply of nurses which shall be at the command of Europeaus of all classes in up-couutry stations and elsewhere, and "
[Jolt
INDIAN ;MEDICAL GAZETTE.
240
To
1893.
(2) To this eiid to enroll every European resident, whether civil servants, political, or military officials, merchants, engineers, planters, "
and other managers and tlieir employes, members, aud yearly subscribers of a comparatively small sum, to branches of the Association in their own district, thereby entitling them to the services of a nurse in illness at a rate to their means. proportionate " It is anticipated that this co-operative system will be in great measure self-supporting. But it is impossible that it should be so altogether, owing to the large class of European residents in India who would be unable to pay more than their yearly subscriptions, and a reduced or nominal fee for the services of a nurse. " The scheme of the Association is to begin gradually by planting out nurses iu small numbers where the need seems greatest under the direction and control of existing organizations, such as nursing sisterhoods and hospitals already administered by competent matrons and medical men. By this system it will not be necessary to wait for the accumulation of a large capital, and subscribers can feel certain that their money will at once be applied to the object for which it is given. Later on, as funds increase, the Association hopes to depend, where necessary, on its own independent machinery. Details of administration will necessarily vary in different districts, and will be worked out by local committees of residents iu India. " Wards would be available for Europeans in several native hospitals up-country if nurses There are also huge tracts of were obtainable. over the country length and breadth of which are scattered, Englishmen and their families who can never command a trained nurse at their need
railwny as
unless
some
organization places
reasonable distance,
at a
one within reasonable cost."
a
The Association has already collected a consum of money aud obtained the promise of more in furtherance of its excellent objects. What is wanted now is the formation of local committees in Indian up-country centres to cooperate with the home organization. Without these, the efforts of the latter will be futile ; but with some help and encouragement locally, the Association is in a position to supply moral and material assistance in abundance. I trust, therefore, that Civil Surgeons who are deeply interested in the question of nursing will take the matter up vigorously and practically. 31s* May 1893.
siderable
