PROFESSIONAL TO THE
REMUNERATION, &c.,
EDITOR OF THE
IN MADRAS.
"INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE."
of the objects of your journal being confessedly " to establish, a bond of professional sympathy between the three sister Presidencies," perhaps the following in regard to the fees of Civil Surgeons in Southern India may not be unacceptable to your readers. The liberal Madras Government, so far baclc as 1857, on the of a Mr. Robinson (now Inspector General of Police), application and " from regard to the feelings of medical officers themselves, " that no less than of those who require their services," ruled the charge should not exceed 5 shillings, or 2| rupees, for one visit; and that if two visits be paid in the same day to the same family, either to the same or different members of it, the charge for the two visits should not be more tnau 34 rupees ; and that not more than two visits to the same familyshould be charged for in the same day." This order was not intended to apply to the Presidency. In the correspondence submitted to Government on this subject, a Civil Surgeon urged that a ride of five or six miles in the tropical sun considered, he thought, a guinea a reasonable charge. Mr. Robinson was not prepared to recognise this as fair, and the Governor in Council said " ditto to Mr. Burke."
Sir,?One
Anent your observations on the Madras Subordinate Medical I would remark that no body of men could have been more equal to their duties than those whc were trained at the Madras College informer years ; but a cheap and nastylot is now being let loose on our hospitals. The examiners of the''junior department" of the Medical College report:?"In their examination of this department, the Committee bore in mind that these men are not employed or paid as doctors competent to treat serious diseases," and " that their duties are, or ought to be, of a very mechanical nature. The standard of examination was consequently fixed very low, but even that low standard, though reached by some of the pupils, was barely reached bymost. and not approached by others. In passing the whole class of 31 members out of college, it therefore behoves the committee to state that, though able to perform the minor and mechanical duties of a hospital under the direction of a medical officer, these young men are quite unfit to be trusted with the medical charge of even a Naique's guard."
Department,
A friend of mine, who was afflicted with one of these hospital obstructives during an epidemic of cholera, has permitted me to transcribe the obstructive's report of the state of a patient, which, though not as lucid as that of " the boil as per margin," it must be confessed is peculiar from its arbitrary style, and economy of punctuation:?"Present symptoms at 11 o'clock purged only once like watery urine is suppressed lower and upper extrimities cold and clammy breath easier patient is sensible slight cramp in the lower and upper limbs pulse slow no sordies and blue colour in the nails." Would any of your subscribers who are in medical charge of us what the railway establishments up-country inform salary for this duty is; and whether certain " measures for the prevention of cholera," republished by the Bengal Sanitary Commission, have been circulated to the Bengal Army, with the proviso that the measures are to be "generally' carried out, without
NOTES AND QUERIES.
May 1, 1866.]
putting Government to any expense whatever in buildings or followers without sanction first obtained." The wiseacres dowu south have rendered these preventive measures all but nugatory, by the cheese-paring munificence for which Madras is facile
princeps.
I
remain, Sir, Yours faithfully, M. R. C. S.
Madras Presidency, The 2ith
March,
1866.
"I )
135
REMUNERATION, &c.,
EDITOR OF THE
IN MADRAS.
"INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE."
of the objects of your journal being confessedly " to establish, a bond of professional sympathy between the three sister Presidencies," perhaps the following in regard to the fees of Civil Surgeons in Southern India may not be unacceptable to your readers. The liberal Madras Government, so far baclc as 1857, on the of a Mr. Robinson (now Inspector General of Police), application and " from regard to the feelings of medical officers themselves, " that no less than of those who require their services," ruled the charge should not exceed 5 shillings, or 2| rupees, for one visit; and that if two visits be paid in the same day to the same family, either to the same or different members of it, the charge for the two visits should not be more tnau 34 rupees ; and that not more than two visits to the same familyshould be charged for in the same day." This order was not intended to apply to the Presidency. In the correspondence submitted to Government on this subject, a Civil Surgeon urged that a ride of five or six miles in the tropical sun considered, he thought, a guinea a reasonable charge. Mr. Robinson was not prepared to recognise this as fair, and the Governor in Council said " ditto to Mr. Burke."
Sir,?One
Anent your observations on the Madras Subordinate Medical I would remark that no body of men could have been more equal to their duties than those whc were trained at the Madras College informer years ; but a cheap and nastylot is now being let loose on our hospitals. The examiners of the''junior department" of the Medical College report:?"In their examination of this department, the Committee bore in mind that these men are not employed or paid as doctors competent to treat serious diseases," and " that their duties are, or ought to be, of a very mechanical nature. The standard of examination was consequently fixed very low, but even that low standard, though reached by some of the pupils, was barely reached bymost. and not approached by others. In passing the whole class of 31 members out of college, it therefore behoves the committee to state that, though able to perform the minor and mechanical duties of a hospital under the direction of a medical officer, these young men are quite unfit to be trusted with the medical charge of even a Naique's guard."
Department,
A friend of mine, who was afflicted with one of these hospital obstructives during an epidemic of cholera, has permitted me to transcribe the obstructive's report of the state of a patient, which, though not as lucid as that of " the boil as per margin," it must be confessed is peculiar from its arbitrary style, and economy of punctuation:?"Present symptoms at 11 o'clock purged only once like watery urine is suppressed lower and upper extrimities cold and clammy breath easier patient is sensible slight cramp in the lower and upper limbs pulse slow no sordies and blue colour in the nails." Would any of your subscribers who are in medical charge of us what the railway establishments up-country inform salary for this duty is; and whether certain " measures for the prevention of cholera," republished by the Bengal Sanitary Commission, have been circulated to the Bengal Army, with the proviso that the measures are to be "generally' carried out, without
NOTES AND QUERIES.
May 1, 1866.]
putting Government to any expense whatever in buildings or followers without sanction first obtained." The wiseacres dowu south have rendered these preventive measures all but nugatory, by the cheese-paring munificence for which Madras is facile
princeps.
I
remain, Sir, Yours faithfully, M. R. C. S.
Madras Presidency, The 2ith
March,
1866.
"I )
135
