THE INDIAN MEDICAL SERVICE. The

home

arrived at

by

papers mention with regret the determination the India Office, tiiat it -will hold no examination

for the Indian Medical Service next August; a similar disappointment awaited the candidates for examination last February, so that a year will have passed without any new appointments having been made in our service. Men naturally begin to wonder as to what this means ; in these uncertain times suspicion is excited immediately by an apparent innovation in the existing order of tilings; and we have had several enquiries sent us lately as to the existence and purpose of some mysterious communication which it is supposed the Imperial Sanitary Commissioner has lately circulated among his friends, regarding the re-organization of the Indian Medical Service. We may state with perfect confidence that we have never seen any such communication, nor do we know if it has ever been in circulation ; but of this we feel perfectly sure, that neither the Government in this country nor at home, will entertain any scheme affecting the position of their medical officers without allowing the members of the service the fullest opportunity for discussing the merits of the proposed alterations; the army amalgamation scheme has hardly yielded results, such as to make

rulers over-anxious to rush into the far more com-

our

plex question

of

the British and Indian Medical Ser-

fusing

We cannot, therefore, entertain the belief some, that the reason for no further additions having

vices into

one mass.

held by lately been made to our services is in consequence of its impending dissolution, or absorption into some other department. True, the lately-created agricultural department is almost wide enough in its ramifications to embrace us, or it may be that, in the present furor regarding information on sanitary matters, we are

to be handed

over

neck and crop to fulfil the function

of health officers, rather than follow the bent of our legitimate calling ; but fancies such as these are without foundation, and are

hardly

recording, were it not the question arises,?what meaning of this refusal on the part of Government:

worth

then is the

to enlist any

of

course

more

medical officers into its service ? We

are

not

in the confidence of those who rule the destinies of

but it may be in these times of financial difficulty, ifc good to our Governors to fill up various appointments formerly held by members of the covenanted service with uncovenanted officers ; in fact, there can be no doubt that the latter class is on the increase, and it is equally certain they are less expensive to the country than covenanted officers, and many of them are men of great ability; nevertheless, we are convinced that, in the long run, it will be found to be but poor economy

India, seems

and certain deterioration to the class of medical officers

ployed

em-

in India, should the entrance of fresh members into the

service be

curtailed,

stopped

we

are

from home.

If

our

convinced that it is bad

the examinations in

England

occurred in the service

;

until

a

numbers

policy

are

to

be

to discontinue

number of vacancies have

it stands to reason

that, supposing

average of one hundred medical officers are required every ten years, it must be better to select ten men every year from an

among the candidates coming up for examination, rather than pass fifty men in a lump every five years ; among the latter a third gain the highest standard of examination, and the remainder are thrown into Government service, because it is necessary to fill up a

probably

not more than

marks at the the

146

THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.

large number of vacancies. By holding examinations every six months, and selecting from the candidates ten, or it may be five, of the best men on the list, the Government would secure the best of the

rising generation

of medical

men

for the

Indian service. The course at present followed by the home authorities on young medical men, natives of and gone to England, perhaps left India who have country, on borrowed covenanted medical service. the into to capital, pass

presses with

peculiar severity

this

We know from personal experience the sacrifices

some

of these

started from this

made, and the high hopes with which they place, to travel half across the globe, that they

might gain

honorable

young

men

have

an

Government of their

entrance into the service of the

country. These poor fellows have disappointment and sorrow, and if it be any consolation to them, we assure them that they have our heart-felt sympathies ; their failure has arisen from no fault of their owu, and is, therefore, perhaps the harder for them to bear. gono

through

much

own

[July 1,

1871.

The Indian Medical Service.

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