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CHAPTER. V.

Medical Education and Registration.

1. MEDICAL COLLEGES.

     Medical Colleges built at Government expense were established at
Calcutta and Madras in 1835 while half the initial cost of the Bombay
College built ten years later was defrayed by the friends of Sir Robert
Grant after whom the new institution was named. Although numerous
schools sprang up to provide training for a subordinate class of medical
officers (hospital assistants and sub-assistant surgeons), except for Lahore
(1860), it was not until 1906 that the need for more teaching of a Univer-
sity standard was recognised. The example of Lucknow (1911) was
followed by other centres and there are now 10 University medical
colleges, including one exclusively for women, established in India. At
first the Colleges, which were used almost entirely to train medical men
for Government service, granted their own diplomas but Calcutta became
affiliated to a University in 1857 and was followed soon after by Madras,
Bombay and Lahore.

     2. The connection of Indian Medical Colleges with the General Medical
Council of the United Kingdom began in 1892 when that Council accepted
Indian degrees as being of sufficient standard to be placed on the British
Medical Register. After the War the General Medical Council, who were
dissatisfied with the reports received concerning the teaching of midwifery,
deputed Sir Norman Walker to inspect and report on the standard of
medical education in India. Inspection of standards of recognised qualifi-
cations is one of the duties imposed upon the General Medical Council
and Sir Norman Walker's visit was followed by an all round improvement
in medical education. Some colleges were unable to attain to the required
standard and when India was unable to accept their proposals for regular
inspection the General Medical Council were compelled to withdraw
recognition from Indian degrees. This state of affairs existed from 1924
to 1933 when the Indian Medical Council Act, 1933, passed by the
Central Legislature came into force. By this Act responsibility for the
maintenance of a uniform minimum standard of higher medical qualifi-
cations for the whole of British India was entrusted to the Medical Council
of India who were given necessary powers to inspect courses of instruction
and examinations and to recommend to the Governor-General in Council
the medical qualifications which should be included in the Schedules to
the Act. In accordance with the powers conferred upon it the Council
has in 1934, 1935 and 1936 carried out detailed inspections of all the
Indian Medical Colleges and their examinations and as a result the medical
qualifications of all the Universities except those of the Andhra Univer-
sity have now been placed on the First Schedule of the Act. As a result
of two careful and detailed inspections of the Vizagapatam Medical