VERNACULAR MEDICAL EDUCATION IN MADRASare prevented by want of space from extracting a long by the Inspector General of the Medical Department, Madras, which, with the orders thereon by the Madras Government, dated the 10th ultimo, have recently been published in
We
letter
some of the papers of that Presidency. The object of the Inspector General's letter is to urge on the Government the advisability of utilising the hereditary Physicians of the " country, the Hakeems and Vytians," by inducing young men of those castes to study at the Charitable Dispensaries throughout the country. The proposed scheme, though resembling
that now at work in the Sealkote district and elsewhere in the is not so ambitious. But there is a doubt whether the
Punjab,
raised, since, owing to the unfavourable " nearly all the dispensary funds have had heavy calls upon them, and have had to restrict expenditure, the people being too poor to contribute donations or subscriptions for merely medical charities." Hence all that, necessary funds can be seasons
of the last two years,
THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.
206
proposed at present, is to secure the attendance dispensaries by a monthly stipend, and to pupils guarantee public employment in the district to such of them as reach a fixed standard of qualification. The Madras Government has instructed the Board of Revenue to ascertain, through the Collectors, how far the people generally are willing, by the reraising a voluntary cess, to carry out the project. Should of the hear to we sult of this enquiry bo favourable, may expect
apparently,
is
of the
at the
features being enlarged by the addition of the other the establishment of Scholarships viz., Punjabi prototype, in the Medical College, and the subsidising the existing generation of Hakeems by monthly stipends, and allowances for the
scheme of its
purchase
of medicines.
altogether new in either Madras or the Government, as we learn from Dr. Shaw's letter, expressed their willingness in July 1862 to support "any well digested plan for imparting a knowledge of European Medical Science to the Native Medical Practitioners The scheme is not
Madras
The
Punjab.
and although, owing to an report made upon the subject by the late Principal Inspector General, Dr. Cole, no detailed scheme or estimate for carrying out the project was ever submitted, yet (independent
and Midwives in the Provinces unfavourable
of the
regular
Obstetric classes for women, connected with the
Medical College)
"
at
Cuddalore, Manargoody, and Cuddapali, taught, with a fair amount of success, and Lying-in-Wards, which it is hoped to practise Midwifery natire women have been
may hereafter be used for educational purposes, have been established in several other Dispensaries. At Madura alone was any
attempt made to instruct the one
youth
seems
of the caste
to have been
was
sons
of Hakeems, and there
only
entertained ; but the result in his case At at least one station under the
satisfactory.
Government the Civil
Surgeon has for some years considerable part of his time to the instruction of Hakeems' and Baids' sons in Medicine, and of Dhyes in MidPunjab
devoted
a
wifery. These, however, have been but isolated efforts. We now see a prospect of the experiment being tried on a large two extremities of the and shall watch at India, scale, the result with great interest. Like all obsolete social systems, that of caste once had its use, and that more espe" the learned professions," as we now cially in the case of call them. In a rude state of society, ere yet books were, history, and such medical skill as there was, would have infallibly been lost, had there not been a race of men whose sacred duty was
to commit them to memory, and hand them down to their In the present day the case is the
children.
different; PhysiSurgeon publishes his special contributions to the common stock of knowledge, and his children have no better opportunities of learning his profession than have any other persons of equal education. To this "levelling" state of things cian
or
the descendants of the old consider themselves as having a
hereditary
practitioners, who divine right" to medicine, owe a grudge, and hence they disparage scientific medicine and those who profess it, in order to magnify their own traditional knowledge. Any system which, without interfering with their cherish"
hereditary privileges, will induce these men to study scientific medicine, will do incalculable good, both negatively and positively. Negatively, by rendering it no longer their interest or (as they now deem it) their duty to prevent the sick from obtaining the ed
[August 1,
1SG7.
aid of scientific
practitioners; and positively, by both renqualified for their duties, and also, though in a less degree perhaps, making public any practical advantages there may be in their own system of medicine. One of
dering
tliera better
the contributors
to our
present number has alluded to this
point, and suggested that some of the medicines now used empirically by Hakeems may be worthy of having their properties scientifically studied. It is needless to point out how much more easily this could be done, were the Hakeems, the Baids, and the Physicians and Surgeons of the modern European School brought to consider themselves as equals and colleagues, members of the one profession, and workers for the one great end? the relief of suffering mankind.
We
letter
some of the papers of that Presidency. The object of the Inspector General's letter is to urge on the Government the advisability of utilising the hereditary Physicians of the " country, the Hakeems and Vytians," by inducing young men of those castes to study at the Charitable Dispensaries throughout the country. The proposed scheme, though resembling
that now at work in the Sealkote district and elsewhere in the is not so ambitious. But there is a doubt whether the
Punjab,
raised, since, owing to the unfavourable " nearly all the dispensary funds have had heavy calls upon them, and have had to restrict expenditure, the people being too poor to contribute donations or subscriptions for merely medical charities." Hence all that, necessary funds can be seasons
of the last two years,
THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.
206
proposed at present, is to secure the attendance dispensaries by a monthly stipend, and to pupils guarantee public employment in the district to such of them as reach a fixed standard of qualification. The Madras Government has instructed the Board of Revenue to ascertain, through the Collectors, how far the people generally are willing, by the reraising a voluntary cess, to carry out the project. Should of the hear to we sult of this enquiry bo favourable, may expect
apparently,
is
of the
at the
features being enlarged by the addition of the other the establishment of Scholarships viz., Punjabi prototype, in the Medical College, and the subsidising the existing generation of Hakeems by monthly stipends, and allowances for the
scheme of its
purchase
of medicines.
altogether new in either Madras or the Government, as we learn from Dr. Shaw's letter, expressed their willingness in July 1862 to support "any well digested plan for imparting a knowledge of European Medical Science to the Native Medical Practitioners The scheme is not
Madras
The
Punjab.
and although, owing to an report made upon the subject by the late Principal Inspector General, Dr. Cole, no detailed scheme or estimate for carrying out the project was ever submitted, yet (independent
and Midwives in the Provinces unfavourable
of the
regular
Obstetric classes for women, connected with the
Medical College)
"
at
Cuddalore, Manargoody, and Cuddapali, taught, with a fair amount of success, and Lying-in-Wards, which it is hoped to practise Midwifery natire women have been
may hereafter be used for educational purposes, have been established in several other Dispensaries. At Madura alone was any
attempt made to instruct the one
youth
seems
of the caste
to have been
was
sons
of Hakeems, and there
only
entertained ; but the result in his case At at least one station under the
satisfactory.
Government the Civil
Surgeon has for some years considerable part of his time to the instruction of Hakeems' and Baids' sons in Medicine, and of Dhyes in MidPunjab
devoted
a
wifery. These, however, have been but isolated efforts. We now see a prospect of the experiment being tried on a large two extremities of the and shall watch at India, scale, the result with great interest. Like all obsolete social systems, that of caste once had its use, and that more espe" the learned professions," as we now cially in the case of call them. In a rude state of society, ere yet books were, history, and such medical skill as there was, would have infallibly been lost, had there not been a race of men whose sacred duty was
to commit them to memory, and hand them down to their In the present day the case is the
children.
different; PhysiSurgeon publishes his special contributions to the common stock of knowledge, and his children have no better opportunities of learning his profession than have any other persons of equal education. To this "levelling" state of things cian
or
the descendants of the old consider themselves as having a
hereditary
practitioners, who divine right" to medicine, owe a grudge, and hence they disparage scientific medicine and those who profess it, in order to magnify their own traditional knowledge. Any system which, without interfering with their cherish"
hereditary privileges, will induce these men to study scientific medicine, will do incalculable good, both negatively and positively. Negatively, by rendering it no longer their interest or (as they now deem it) their duty to prevent the sick from obtaining the ed
[August 1,
1SG7.
aid of scientific
practitioners; and positively, by both renqualified for their duties, and also, though in a less degree perhaps, making public any practical advantages there may be in their own system of medicine. One of
dering
tliera better
the contributors
to our
present number has alluded to this
point, and suggested that some of the medicines now used empirically by Hakeems may be worthy of having their properties scientifically studied. It is needless to point out how much more easily this could be done, were the Hakeems, the Baids, and the Physicians and Surgeons of the modern European School brought to consider themselves as equals and colleagues, members of the one profession, and workers for the one great end? the relief of suffering mankind.
