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Did a Native Medical School function in Madras in the 1820s?

The English East India Company (EEIC) established the Bengal Medical Service in 1763. EEIC established similar services in Bombay and Madras shortly after. By 1775, a Medical Board in Calcutta and Hospital Boards in Madras and Bombay began administering public hospitals. At this time, practitioners trained in Western medicine were few and far between. The British qualified surgeons working in India trained their ‘assistants’ for 1-2 years and certified them as capable of practising Western medicine independently.

To enhance numbers of so trained medical practitioners and also to improve the quality of assistants to British-qualified EEIC surgeons, the Native Medical Institution in Calcutta was started in 1824. At the Calcutta Sanskrit College, Ayurveda was taught further to ‘some’ aspects of Western Medicine. At the Calcutta Madrassa, basics of Western Medicine along with Unani-Tibbi were taught. William Bentinck (Governor General, 1828-1835) was unimpressed by the quality of material taught at the Native Medical Schools, more so with the calibre of the ‘graduates’. He was of the strong opinion that the quality of trained personnel was far inferior and that medical education needed to be fully westernised. In 1835, the Native Medical Institution of Calcutta was abolished in 1835.

In this context, I was pleasantly surprised to read a report on a debate at the East India House (London) in the Oriental Herald and Journal of General Literature (1826), published from London, which refers to a practice followed in Madras as ‘Madras system’ in the context of medical instruction to Indians.

The debater (name unavailable) says:

‘In May, 1822, the Medical Board represented to the Government, that as considerable difficulty had been experienced in procuring Native Doctors to supply vacancies in the different Regiments, it would be advisable to establish an institution for the purpose of instructing the Natives and qualifying them to fill up the deficiencies; a superintendent be appointed to teach elementary branches of medicine (identified later as Pharmacy, Physic, and Surgery) and to preside generally over their education. Mr. Jameson [Dr. James Jameson, who was the superintendent of Calcutta Eye Infirmary in 1807-1820], the secretary of (Calcutta) Medical Board was appointed superintendent.’

In such a context, the debater further argues that the Madras Presidency operates without a superintendent. The debater strongly verbalises his disappointment on what the extra salary paid to Jameson was costing the Company and therefore the Native School administration be run without a designated superintendent following the Madras System. This debate resulted in James Jameson’s resignation of his position as the superintendent of Calcutta Native Medical School. Peter Breton, who was Jameson’s predecessor, took charge again.

This debate raises the question: Did a Native Medical School function in Madras, along with Calcutta and Bombay Native Medical Schools, in the 1820s? The general understanding is that no Native Medical Institution was set up in Madras, although the Madras Ayurvedic College (later the College of Indian Medicine) was, through the efforts of the Mohammed Usman-Srinivasamurti Committee in the 1920s.

It will be interesting to know if a Native Medical Institution functioned in Madras, along with Calcutta and Bombay Institutions, and known otherwise. Moreover, a slim pride laces my mind again, when I read the terms ‘Madras System’ used by the debater in London in the 1820s, wherein a Madras model gains superiority over what was practised in Bengal.

A. Raman
araman@csu.edu.au

Hobart in the Nilgiris

Lord Hobart (MM, June,1st) was the son of a clergyman who was also the sixth Earl of Buckinghamshire. During his heyday in Britain, Baron Vere Henry was stoutly opposed to the continuance of the Crimean War. Perhaps that was why he was shunted to Constantinople. On arrival in Madras, he became a strong proponent of a proper harbour for Madras. 

Though Lord Hobart from the beginning advocated the cause of a better drainage system in Madras, it came to be implemented only posthumously, as noted in the write-up. His rendezvous in the hills was well-known in the annals of the Nilgiris. While in the Nilgiris he stayed at Fern Hill (later to become the Mysore Palace). Government House, or a separate governor’s residence, was unknown in those days. Lord Hobart initiated some “magnificent proposals” in 1874 for beautifying Ooty. The Government staggered by the estimated cost and the difficulty in acquiring grounds about sixty to seventy acres in extent, torpedoed the scheme as “not suitable to the character of the ground”. But Hobart Park in Ooty was created in 1875 to honour the late Governor. Even as late as 1908, it was noted as the most beautiful recreation ground in India and the biggest in any hill station in the country. It has disappeared now. Hobart Park in those days was situated on the eastern edge of the present day Racecourse. 

The Neilgherry Archery Club was originally started on the site in 1869. It was the fore-runner of the Ooty Gymkhana Club. A polo ground, cricket ground and a nine-hole golf course soon followed. A race-stand was completed in 1898. As the pavilion for the race-stand came to be extended in later years, Hobart Park gradually lost ground. The present day road from Coonoor (where there was also a settlement of the Crimean War Veterans) to Lamb’s Rock and Dolphin’s Nose was named in memory of Lord Hobart.

Lady Hobart was a highly motivated missionary enthusiast. Mary Catherine Carr, the daughter of a Bishop of Bombay, she married Lord Hobart in 1858. She pioneered the educational mission for native girls at Ooty. The Church of England Zenna Mission greatly promoted these efforts in later times. This work in due course, also launched the famous Mission to the Todas. Its missionary, Catharine Ling, spent 48 years (1886-1932 & 1938-40) with the Todas.

Rev. Philip K. Mulley
Anaihatti Road, Kotagiri 643217

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