6
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE
16. With reference to the Final Examination I may remark that the present is
the only occasion within the range of my experience in which the examination has
been entirely conducted by the Board appointed for the purpose. I have no doubt
that this method of testing the knowledge of our pupils not only carries out the
intention of Government, but is intrinsically preferable to the system of partially
delegating the duty of examining to the Professors who have been the teachers.
I offer the best thanks of my colleagues and my own to the gentlemen who con-
stituted, this year, the Examining Board, for the patience and considerateness with
which they performed their laborious and unremunerated task. Their report is
appended.
17. In addition to the primary work of the College nine young men were
instructed in the branches of science necessary for qualification as Chemists and
Druggists. Of these 5 gentlemen were examined by a Board of Professors and 4
were declared qualified.
18. In the year 1869-70, in which my own connexion with the College began,
the number of students of all departments under instruction was 126; in 1879-80
it was 228. This enormous increase could not fail to be attended with inconveni-
ence in some way. I shall notice only two points, the former of considerable
though minor importance. The supply of material for the teaching of Anatomy
and Operative Surgery has become inadequate. Thus only 25 subjects were avail-
able for dissections during the Winter Session, while 50 would be required for the
Senior and Second Departments alone, according to the scale adopted by our schools
at home. During the Summer Session only nine subjects were available for the
Operative Surgery class, a number which the Professor of Surgery considers quite
insufficient for the practical instruction of his swollen classes. The establishment
of the Auxiliary School at Royapuram, which requires material of this nature for its
own use, is one cause of the diminished supply to this institution. In so large a
city as ours death is always busy, and there is no lack of the poor and friendless
whose bodies after death may be made useful to their fellow creatures. I trust that
we shall be able to obtain the co-operation of our brother officers in charge of
hospitals in overcoming the difficulty I have mentioned.
19. A more serious difficulty, and one which we are ourselves powerless to
overcome, is the great and growing insufficiency of teaching power. Although
the number of students has increased twofold no addition whatever, with the
trifling exception of provision for the clinical instruction of a few extra pupils in
the General Hospital, has been made to our educational staff. It is, indeed, approxi-
mately as easy to lecture to fifty students as to ten, but our system of instruc-
tion, wisely devised and most successful, involves frequent class examinations.
One meeting in every three is devoted to examination. When a class exceeds 25 an
hour's examination is practically useless. The class must be divided and part of
it examined by an Assistant. I have no hesitation in saying that our system of
teaching is becoming disorganized through want of an increased number of Assist-
ants. During the past Session the Professor of Physiology with a class of 91 had
no Assistant at all. I trust that the need of increased Assistant staff has only to
be brought to the notice of Government to be supplied. A large and increasing
proportion of our students pay no inconsiderable fees for professional instruction
and are entitled to the best that can be bestowed. In the past year Rs. 5,920
were received and credited to Government from this source.
20. Professor Brockman makes a suggestion which meets with my approval,
viz., that students of the Second Department should attend, as the former of their
two courses of Physiology, the Assistant's lectures with the Junior Department
pupils. I have long been more than doubtful of the advantage of requiring
students to attend two or- more identical courses of lectures in one subject ; but
without entering into the general question I may express my concurrence in
Professor Brockman's opinion that the Second Department would derive more
advantage from the Professor's course if it had previously learned more elementary
physiology from the Assistant.
21. The College Library contains now 5,625 volumes, of which 117 were
added in the past year. I have always regretted that this valuable collection of