75

     The staff of the College published 13 papers on various subjects of
medical interest during 1936-37.

MEDICAL COLLEGE, CALCUTTA (BENGAL).

     It is a Government institution and is one of the oldest Medical Colleges
in India. It was the first to teach the preliminary Sciences and give
clinical training under the same roof. On the recommendation of a Com-
mittee on Medical Education appointed by Lord William Bentinck, His
Lordship in Council issued an Order dated the 28th January 1835 abolishing
the Native Medical Institute together with the medical classes in the
Sanskrit College and at the Madarassa in Calcutta and decreed that a
new College should be formed for the instruction of a certain number of
Indian youths in the various branches of medical science. A Medical
College was accordingly started in 1835 in the buildings formerly occupied
by the Petty Court Jail. Although the College had no hospital in the
beginning, arrangements were made for imparting clinical instruction to
the students at the various city dispensaries and hospitals. In 1838,
however, a ward with 20 beds and an outpatients department was
opened. In this year a Hindustani class was also opened for the education
of subordinate doctors. An outpatients dispensary was established in
1839. The first examination was held in October 1838 after 3½ years
study, and Government approved of the results.

     In 1840 a female lying-in hospital with 100 beds was constructed within
the College premises with the aid of funds raised by public subscription.
By 1844 the hospital had 3 wards with accommodation for 112 beds. In
1845 the system of instruction was overhauled and the period of study
extended to 5 years. As a result of these changes the College received
the recognition of the Royal College of Surgeons in England and of the
Apothecaries Society of London, and four students were sent to England
for higher study. In 1851 a section for the training of doctors through
the medium of Bengali was added to the Hindustani class. In 1852-53
a large hospital with accommodation for 350 beds was opened, 50 being
reserved for maternity and allied cases. The College had at this time 10
Chairs, viz., those for Anatomy, Physiology, Zoology, Chemistry, Botany,
Materia Medica, Medical jurisprudence, Midwifery, Surgery, Medicine
and Ophthalmic Surgery and possesed an ample museum.

     The College was affiliated to the University of Calcutta in 1857. In
1860 a Code of Rules was drawn up for all classes of the Medical College
dividing the students into four classes,viz., (i) the primary and Ceylon
classes taking the full University Curriculum of 5 years, (ii) the Apprentice
class, (iii) the Hindusthani class and (iv) the Bengalee class (the latter
pursuing a 3 years' course). The native apothecary class and the verna-
cular licentiate class with a total number of 873 students were transferred
to a new school in the Campbell Hospital. Training in dentistry was
started in 1861 and in Hygiene in 1864-65. A woman student was
admitted for the first time in 1884. The minimum qualification for