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3. Indian men were already receiving medical education. But could
women join with them? It would certainly not be easy and some of t
h e m e n t e a c h e r s , l i k e t h o s e i n E n g l a n d , w e r e n o t a t a l l e n t h u s i a s t i c a b o u t
having women pupils. In the end however it was a man Surgeon General
Balfour of Madras who succeeded in implementing the proposal. In 1872
he advocated medical education for women as he was of opinion that
the needs of Indian women could not be met by men "for the next hundred
years". He proposed either to institute a nurses' training at the Women's
and Children's Hospital, or else to form a class at the Medical College.
The Director of Public Instruction considered this move as "entirely pre
¬mature" and vetoed it. Surgeon General Balfour was not daunted however
and renewed the proposal in 1874, this time being supported by Dr. H. C.
Furnell, I.M.S., then Principal of the Medical College. Four students,
who were either Europeans or Anglo-Indians were admitted to the Medical
College. They studied for three years in what was then called the "Certi-
ficate" class and all passed the final examination "with great credit".
One of these students was Dame Scharlieb who afterwards took a
full medical course in London and had a distinguished career, first in Madras
and then in London.
4. In the north of India, where the need for medical aid for women
was even greater than in Madras, but where the difficulties of providing
it were correspondingly great, some private efforts were made to educate
medical women in the decade 1870–80. These efforts were highly praise-
worthy, but were in the circumstances doomed to failure owing to lack
of resources. In 1883 Brigade Surgeon Hilson suggested that women
should be admitted to the Medical School for men at Agra, providing
for privacy and protection for the women students. The Lieutenant
Governor of the Province at that time was Sir Alfred Lyall and, grasping
the needs of women and the possibility of thus providing for them, sanc-
tioned the proposal. Later the.Lady Lyall Hospital was founded to provide
a practising field for the women students.
The course of events was very similar in Lahore, where women were
admitted to classes in 1884, and the Lady Aitchison Hospital was started
in 1886.
Women were admitted to the Medical College, Calcutta, in 1885 after
some opposition from the Medical College authorities. In Bombay women
were admitted without difficulty. In neither Presidency were separte
classes for women held as this was not considered necessary.
A few years later a Medical School for women, under the auspices of
an Interdenominational Missionary Committee was founded at Ludhiana
in the Punjab.
A similar Medical School came into being at Vellore in the Madras
Presidency in 1918.
5. While by the year 1910 women could study with men in the Medical
College of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras and secure University degrees,
the only provision in the whole of India for women to study apart from
men, and be trained by members of their own sex, was at Ludhiana. A
few non-Christian girls were admitted, but the School was a Christian
foundation and its staff was missionary. This was a disadvantage to the