MADRAS MEDICAL COLLEGE.
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be passed successfully before the candidates of either class can obtain a certificate of qualifica-
tion for the grade they hope to be appointed to. The examinations are conducted by officers
appointed by Government. The rules for their guidance sanctioned by authority are appended
to this report.
The officers who were appointed to undertake this duty are
―
Surgeon-Major A. PORTER, M.D.,
President.
Do . W. MACR AE M. B. , . .
Do . J . J . L . R AT T ON, M. D. ,
When the draft rules for the conduct of these examinations were under preparation, the
College Council discussed the feasibility of substituting University tests for departmental
examinations of the Second Department, and arrived at the conclusion that the change would
be advantageous. Whenever Government may deem fit to authorize the change, the College
will then train students for University Degrees only, a future full of promise for the Madras
Medical College.
Chemist and Druggist Class.—The Class of Chemists and Druggists was, at the beginning
of the Session, composed of eight students, one of whom left after two months' attendance.
The Professor of Materia Medica reports that four showed fair ability and industry and made
good progress, while the other three did not do well.
Three appeared before the Board of Examiners, and only one passed (Mr. E. E. Theobold).
Lady Students.—At the commencement of the Session, there were eight Lady students on
the rolls of the College. Two of these, who came to us from Calcutta, had previously passed,
one the First in Arts and the other the Matriculation Examination of the Calcutta University
and are holders of Bethune Scholarships. Of the six who were in the classes last year, one has
resigned. The others, with the expiration of this Session, complete their second year's course
of study.
Miss D'Abreu of Calcutta is in the M.B. Section of the Senior Department, and she is
qualifying for the M.B. Degree. She will, in a few days, appear for the Preliminary Scientific
Examination. Misses Hayes and Abala Dás (the latter also from Calcutta) are in the class
qualifying for the L.M. and S. Degree.
Misses Stewart, Yerbury, Ramsbotham and Smith are qualifying for the College Diploma.
These appeared for the Primary Examination. Three out of the four failed to pass.
The report of the Professors on these students is, on the whole, satisfactory. During
the Session, they were attached to the General Hospital and worked well as Clinical Clerks.
Mrs. Scharlieb's success has again brought our College prominently to public notice both
here and in Europe. This lady studied at the Madras Medical College for three years and
then proceeded to London, in order to study for the M.B. Degree of the London Univer-
sity, a professional qualification that she has taken with high honors, especially in Obstetric
Medicine, in which she took the highest place in the First Class and won the Scholarship and
Gold Medal.
It is to be hoped that, on her return, she will find a suitable field of labor at Madras. Mrs.
Scharlieb's success ought to be an inducement to ladies with an aptitude for Medical work to
study for the profession. The field for medical women in India is as yet almost unoccupied,
and the hope is that, before long, the expectations entertained by Surgeon-General E. G.
Balfour, the officer who first moved the Government to institute a class of lady practitioners,
may be fully realized.
The Principals of the Calcutta and Bombay Medical Colleges asked for information regard-
ing our Female Classes and whether any difficulty is experienced in conducting their education.
The replies sent are in favor of the institution of similar classes in those Colleges.
Pro fessors' remarks.—Professor Sibthorpe, in his report on the classes, draws attention to
the fact that, according to present arrangements, students are not able to work in the dissect-
ing room longer than two consecutive hours daily, and suggests that three hours be, in future,
allotted for the purpose.
In previous years, the dissecting hours were from 6 to 10 in the morning; but my prede-
cessor, finding that the arrangement seriously interfered with the Clinical training of students,
which was entirely suspended when students were dissecting, reduced the working hours in
the dissecting room and also altered the time to the forenoon. By this change, Clinical instruc-
tion at the various hospitals went on concurrently with the study of Practical Anatomy. The
study of Practical Anatomy has not suffered by the new arrangement, first, because the dis-
section of bodies is now spread over a longer period, and, secondly, because students of the
class who are not actually dissecting at the time, attend the dissecting room almost daily for
demonstration by the Professor and his Assistant on portions already dissected.
Professor Sibthorpe remarks also that he would prefer to have an Assistant Demonstrator
who is not a College student instead of the four Assistant Demonstrators who are senior
students, a change which, he thinks, is more likely to ensure the requisite help being given to
junior dissectors.
In drawing attention to the deficiency of certain students of the Senior Department attend-
ing his class, Professor Drake-Brockman remarks of one of them, that it is clear his object was
merely to serve for a certificate of attendance and, with a view to ensure due application to
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