REPORT ON THE WORKING OF THE GOVERNMENT MEDICAL SCHOOL, RANGOON, FOR THE YEAR 1912-13. 3
9.The school was removed to the old General Hospital building at the
beginning of the session and a hostel is also attached to the school.
10.
begining total receipts during the period under report were Rs. 354 and the
expenditure amounted to Rs, 40,126-11-0. There has been a considerable
increase in expenditure owing to the purchase of furniture for the school and the
hostel.
I. The hostel started from July 1912 with 25 boarders. Seven new
boarders were admitted in August and September, thus making a total of 32
boarders, which is, at present, the maximum number that can be accommodated. .
Out of these 32, 21 were Burmese and Chinese, six native Christians, two Hindus
and three Mahomedans. The hostel is supervised by an Assistant Lecturer of
the school under the control of the Superintendent. At the beginning there were
some difficulties in managing the food for the hostel departmentally owing to
divergence of taste according to different nationalities. The contract system,
which was introduced in the latter part of the year, has worked satisfactorily.
Finance.--The hostel, as it stands at present, is purely a self-supporting
institution, and receives no pecuniary help from outside. The total receipts from
the boarders during the year were Rs. 5,347-9-7, and the total expenditure was
Rs. 5,140-2-6, leaving a balance of Rs. 207-7-1.
12. General Remarks.— Major Rost, I.M.S., acted as Superintendent of the
school up to the date he went on leave, viz., the 11th November 1912, and from
that date onwards, the writer of this Report took his place and held it up to the
end of the session. Assistant Surgeon Y. Subrahmanyam took up the duties of
an Assistant Lecturer on the 25th October 1912 in place of Assistant Surgeon
P. R. Menon transferred the latter held the appointment very ably since the
establishment of the school up to the date of his departure from the school. The
lecturers and the assistant lecturers of the school worked very enthusiastically.
Ten final year students, who have passed the final Board Examination, have
been sent to Madras to undergo a course of practical training in midwifery in the
Madras Maternity Hospital. The want of a Maternity Hospital attached, if
possible, to the Medical School, mainly for the benefit of the students, is a factor
that cannot be ignored, and the establishment of such an institution seems to me
a most pressing need. The unnecessary extra expenditure incurred on account
of passage of students, and the inconvenience caused to them in a foreign land
can only then be avoided. One of the chief objections to the Madras arrange-
ment is that the students are first taught theoretically in a practical subject and
their actual practical work, instead of being taken pail passe with the mere book-
work, is deferred until the course of lectures is finished. Major Barry (one of
the examiners) asked a student what he would do for a certain form of dangerous
hæmorrhage. The reply according to the books was perfectly correct, but when
told that it was a question of minutes, within which the hæmorrhage should be
stopped if life was to be saved, he (the examinee) was absolutely non-plussed, and
could give no idea of what immediate treatment he would adopt. He knew
theoretically all the things that might be done, but the absence of practical know-
ledge rendered such theoretical knowledge useless.
Going to Madras is also a strain on the students, as it adds another three
months to their course of lectures.
P. DEE, M.B., Major, I.M.S.,
Superintendent, Burma Government Medical School, Rangoon.