(2)
the demand will steadily increase ; and though we might reckon easily at the present
moment the places in the Punjab for which medical men are required, I believe that the
necessities of the country, the march of intellect, and the advancement of science, will
create demands in this province, and all over India, which the present Medical Schools
will be barely able to meet. When I say the advancement of science, I mean especially
Sanitary Science, but let it be remembered that scientific men are greatly wanted to in-
vestigate the as yet unexplored resources of this great country, and it is to the ranks of
the Medical profession that Government always looks for Botanists, for Chemists and for
Naturalists, while to afford professional advice to the population, solely in the matter of
their health, would require more medical men than have yet been supplied by all the
Medical Schools in India. The Sub-Assistant Surgeons and Native Doctors that have
gone out from here, inform me continually of the numerous cases of disease which, for
want of Medical men with the necessary appliances, lie absolutely neglected. This is
perhaps more obvious in cases of blindness than in any others. Such are exceedingly nu
¬ m e r o u s i n t h e P u n j a b , a n d i n n o n e i s t h e s k i l f u l h a n d o f t h e e d u c a t e d S u r g e o n m o r e
necessary, or more powerful to relieve, while in none is the Yunani system of medicine more
completely
helpless.
6. Perhaps the advantage of this School which, in the beginning, was so much
opposed, ridiculed and calumniated by jealous lookers on, has
never been more signally shown than during epidemics of Cholera,
The last epidemic broke out, about this time last year, when we
had just passed a number of fresh Native Doctors ; and these men became at once in such
request, that none of them could be granted leave, as is usual after passing their final
examination, but they were immediately despatched by the quickest possible modes of
conveyance to the various scenes of the epidemic, and it was in a great measure due to the
soundness of their knowledge, to their excellent working habits, acquired in this institu-
tion, and to their acceptableness to their own countrymen, that the plague visited us
with so much less severity than in former years.
7. I am happy to be able to report the commencement of the long wished for
Hospital, which had indeed become a great necessity. The healing art, on European
principles, is daily becoming better known, and more people are daily flocking to
the Capital for the purpose of obtaining medical advice, Thus it frequently happens
that our present building, which ought to hold about 48 patients, is crowded to excess,
to the great detriment of all concerned : this, however, is noticed more particularly in the
Hospital report appended hereto (Appendix B).*
8. The great event of the year I hold to be the acknowledgment of the efforts
of the Punjab Government in the cause of science by the Senate
of the University of Dublin, who hold out encouragement to our
students to go home and take degrees in Dublin. I give below
(Appendix A) a letter from the Medical Registrar of that University received in Decem-
ber last. It obviously does not promise a complete recognition, seeing that this is accord-
ed only to the Irish Schools and to the Medical School of Edinburgh ; but the purport of
the letter evidently is to offer our men privileges similar to those granted to students
from the English Schools who have not passed the College of Surgeons of England. An
offer of this kind, coming at the same time with the establishment of the Gilchrist scholar-
ships, will I hope stimulate the Punjabees to still further exertion ; and I trust that the
time is not far distant when some of them will travel to Europe, and prove to the Home
Universities that we have men to instruct who deserve encouragement, and who are
not far behind, either in ability, energy or professional attainments, the alumni of the
m o t h e r c o u n t r y .
Its advantage during Cho¬
lora epidemics.
Complimentary letter re-
ceived from the University
of Dublin.
* Printed separately.