On November 16, 1664 started the Government General Hospital (GH) in Fort St George as a tiny facility to treat sick British soldiers.
By 1772, GH was training Europeans, Eurasians, and natives in western medical practice. The trained personnel were posted as assistants in different dispensaries throughout the presidency.
In 1820, GH was recognised as the model hospital of East India Company. In 1827, D Mortimer became the Superintendent of GH, who initiated Madras Medical School (MMS), which has grown today into the world-class Madras Medical College (MMC), through which great masters of medicine and surgery have passed.
MMS started as a private medical ‘hall’ managed by Mortimer. Governor Frederick Adams inaugurated it as a formal school in 1835 (2 Feb 1835, according to Dorairajan et al., Indian Journal of Surgery, 2007, 69: 163–168.). Through an ordinance promulgated by Adams the school was attached to GH and supported by the State. In the early 1850s, the school council sought the status of a college.
On October 1, 1850, MMS was renamed MMC. That Indians were admitted in MMS in 1842, and the first batch of students graduated in 1852 (with a Diploma entitled Graduate of the Madras Medical College--?), and it was affiliated to the University of Madras in 1857 are known.
The Madras Journal Literature and Science (VIII: 268, 1838) includes a note MMS under Scientific Intelligence (XVI) by an unnamed author. I paraphrase details from that article here.
The first paragraph eloquently waxes on the greatness of western medical practice contrasted against Indian medical practice and how Indians were averse to seeking western medical advice; this note indicates that MMS was going to be a milestone in Indian medical history.
The author gloats that the language of instruction would be English, which would prevent learners from learning Indian medical practice. I felt that the author of this note, in his/ her enthusiasm to drive home points, had used an aggressive language. I realise that past doings cannot be undone.
The second paragraph refers briefly to the origins of MMS explaining the sorts of medical personnel then in practice: the Apothecaries and the Dressers. The Apothecaries were generally British and occasionally other Europeans, whereas the Dressers were Indians. Because formal medical training was offered to these personnel, except that they received voluntary training in army hospitals, the need for formal training to generate personnel for employment at GH arose. This led to the start of MMS in Mortimer and Harding superintendents (professors).
All published documents on MMC, refer only to Mortimer and none to Harding (e.g., Dorairajan et al., 2007).
According to this note, Harding (full name unavailable) was the professor of surgery and played equally key role in the establishment of MMS, as much as Mortimer did: “Very great credit is due to those gentlemen [sic Mortimer and Harding] for the persevering industry with which they advanced the school from its small beginnings to its palmy (balmy-?) state in which it now flourishes.” The third paragraph refers to students admitted into the programme, which again includes unpalatable language: “A limitation of the beneficial influences of the institution to the public servants.
…: and we doubt not that the fullest advantages of such an establishment will be reaped shortly, by the admission of pupils, the children of those who are desirous of educating their sons to a knowledge of medicine, with a view to their exercising the profession in this country, with the lights of European science, instead of by the scintillations of their own ignis-fatuus illusion, intangible, deceptive) which leads to a region where non incubat atra.” [Dominik Wujastyk, Vienna: non incubat atra should be nox incubat atra, sensu Vergil, meaning dark night sits brooding on the deep]. Only one pupil, not belonging to public service, was an Indo-Briton sponsored by the Rajah of Travancore, whose identity could not be tracked.
The last two paragraphs describe the public examination held for those qualifying on December 13, 1837.
These paragraphs vividly portray every minor detail, such as the ascending arrangement of benches (gallery) for student seating. The examining board consisted of Lord Elphinstone, Sir Peregrine Maitland, and the Hon.
Sullivan. Frederic Adams oversaw the examination. In his introduction, Mortimer lamented over the difficulty in training learners because they lacked worthwhile previous education.
The first batch of students examined consisted of Indo-Britons (nearly half the number), two-three Europeans, one Muslim (Mooden Sheriff--?), and six Christians, and the remainder Hindus.
Mortimer examined students in Materia Medica and Harding in Anatomy.
Harding used, in the Anatomy examination, an articulated skeleton and Auzoux anatomical figures that were imported from France. The note concludes with an outline of the syllabus used by Mortimer and Harding (Materia Medica, Medicinal Combination, and Anatomy).
Frederick Adams, present during the examination process, encouraged the examinees to perform their duties as medical personnel in the presidency service with assiduity and concluded it.