MADRAS MEDICAL COLLEGE.
9
junior section of our Senior Department. Some four or five years ago it pleased
the University to lower its requirements in medical education by offering a License
in Medicine and Surgery to matriculated students after four years' professional study,
of which only three needed to be collegiate. I have always thought the measure a
mistake, and should have much preferred a revival of the quasi¬degree of the Medical
College. However, the degree was instituted mainly, if not solely, for the purpose,
as its advocates alleged, of supplying the Presidency with educated practitioners.
How it has fulfilled the object which alone would have justified its existence the
following figures show: 56 students have joined our L.M.S. section since its
institution. Of these 5 resigned and 1 died, and 9 have graduated, while 19 have
gone to England to compete for commissions in the army. Of the 22 remaining
on the College books, it is notorious that a very large proportion will be classed, not
with the 9, but with the 19. Such a state of things was not the aim of those who
advocated the institution of the License, nor is it in itself desirable.
14.
No one could wish less than I to exclude gentlemen of any race from the
public services of their country, but I say plainly that a standard of general
education and culture higher than the Matriculation test of the local University
marks is necessary to Medical Officers if they are to mix on equal terms, socially
and intellectually, with members of the other services. It is more than questionable
whether the degree of education represented by Matriculation is a sufficiently firm
or wide foundation for the professional superstructure which we strive to build
upon it, especially since the Senate, in its wisdom, has dispensed with a knowledge
of Latin; but there can be no doubt at all that the average matriculate is not
educated up to the level of average members of the classes with whom the Commis-
sioned Medical Officer will, or at least should, associate.
15.
I propose, therefore, that our Senior Department in its junior section be
restricted to the duty for which it was instituted, viz., the preparation of students for
the University License, and I recommend that certificates of attendance upon
lectures, &c., in this section be issued, not to the candidates, but to the Registrars
of the University on his application.
16.
When the year opened there were 80 students in the Second Department;
all but one stipended and being educated gratuitously for the service of the State. Of
these 36 (12 Military, 22 Civil, and 2 Colonial) were in their third and final year of
study; 29 in their second (12 Military, 16 Civil, and 1 Colonial); and 13 Civil and
1 Colonial Hospital Apprentice were in their first year. The first group of this class
has just appeared before the Final Examining Board and 26 passed, besides a private
student specially permitted by Government to appear.
17.
The opening of this department to private students, which I recom-
mended and Government sanctioned, has been so far a failure. One matriculated
student entered, but went up into the L.M.S section at the commencement of
the Summer Session. Several others applied for admission, but, not having
matriculated, were excluded. Application was made to Government to relax the
qualification so far as to allow candidates to defer Matriculation until the December
of their precollegiate year. The indulgence was refused.
18.
The progress of the students of the Second Department is shown by the
following table of percentages obtained in each subject at the College Exam-
inations:—
Materia Medica
72
Physiology
44
Chemistry
55
Do. Junior Class
56
Medicine
48
Practical Chemistry
64
Surgery
55
Practical Pharmacy
76
Anatomy
74
Minor Surgery
68
19. To this Second Department female students belong, their final qualifi-
cation being the same as that of the Apothecary grade. Four students entered on,
and 3 are still pursuing, their pre-collegiate course. These last are expected to
join the College in October.
20.
Hitherto no fees have been demanded of female students. I am of
opinion that this indulgence is no longer necessary, and that fees on the very
3