E d u l
REPORT
OF THE
LAHORE MEDICAL SCHOOL
FOR THE YEAR. ENDING 31ST MARCH, 1869.
Eight years and a half have now elapsed since the establishment of the Lahore
Medical School. Its progress has been steady, though often in the face of considerable
difficulties, and I am happy, this year, to be able still to report favourably of its success.
2. During the past year we have sent out six Sub-Assistant Surgeons and 20
Native Doctors, making the total of the former class 16 and
of the latter 91, since the establishment of the institution. We
hope, before August, to add to these five Sub-Assistant Surgeons, and 19 Native Doctors,
making the total of both classes 131, during the first nine years of our existence.
3. The number of the English class at present is 30, of whom two are local
students, from Amritsar and Jhung. This class gives very
satisfactory evidence of the spread of general education in the
Punjab ; for, year by year, we find the students' progress, during the first session, better
than in former years ; thus proving that our success is not due to ourselves alone, but
in great part also to the efforts made by the Educational Department, in teaching Eng-
lish, and to the zeal and aptitude of the population in acquiring it.
4. The Hindustani class at present numbers 73, of whom 23 are local students,
from Lahore, Syalkot, Hoshiarpore, Gurdaspore, Jullundhur,
and Rawulpindi.
5. The local students are increasing steadily, though slowly. Those of the
English class are a new institution. The main obstacle to their
rapid increase appears to be the want of means to provide, not
for their education, but for their payment, after they become Sub-Assistant Surgeons
and Native Doctors, which of course it is necessary for a Deputy Commissioner to con-
sider well, before he sends men to be educated here. The difficulties of providing this,
in prospectu, seem to have been much increased of late, by the removal of some of the
sources from which local funds were formerly replenished. I am quite sure that a Go-
vernment guarantee to the payment of local students that pass their final examination.
successfully would greatly increase confidence in this most useful branch of the service.
6. The local students I consider to be a most important class, for they agree to
return to their own districts, and their own friends and relations
will thus profit by their education, and will see the advan-
tages gained, and be the more ready to be influenced by those whom they have known
from their childhood, and to appreciate the benefits they have learnt to confer upon the
inhabitants of their native places. But a still further advantage is gained by educating
these local students, inasmuch as many of them are the sons or relatives of Hakims,
already understanding a little of Yunani Medicine ; so that we are thus able to graft
western science upon eastern practical knowledge.
7. The education of these young Hakims, in fact, appears to me to be the only
effective way of combining the two systems. A Hakim, skill-
ed in his own system, has, of course, acquired a good deal of
practical knowledge, and is acquainted with a number of Indian Medicines, to us com-
paratively unknown ; but there is much, nevertheless, that is based on a wrong founda-
tion, which a man, that has grown old in his profession, finds it difficult to throw aside,
while the difficulty of acquiring a new science is still greater.
Number of passed men.
Number and progress of
:English class.
Number of Hindustani
class.
Local students.
Advantages of educating
local students.
Eastern and western sys-
tems thus combined.