REORGANIZATION OF THE INDIAN MEDICAL SERVICE. There is at the present time an uneasy feeling pervading the ranks of the Indian Medical Service. Humour has it that some one in high places has proposed to mulct its members of a largo number of valuable appointments, and thus to save a considerable sum of money to the exchequer. A scheme has actually, been under consideration, which, whilst rewe understand, ducing the aggregate allowances of the most underpaid service in India, by taking away some of the only prizes which attract good men to it, would destroy the heads of the various Medical Departments, and give as substitutes Medical Secretaries to the Governors and Lieutenant-Governors of the various provinces, which Secretaries might at any moment, at the caprice of their chiefs be deprived of all power for good. Instead of being the constitutional adviser, a scientific officer with certain well-defined powers, and vested with unquestionable independence in his treatement of matters concerning the medical interests of the army and the civil population, the Secretary would inevitably come to be merely the mouthpiece of the Governor or Lieutenant-Governor for the time being. And the time would certainly arrive when he would be called upon to advance opinions against his own convictions, in obedience to the inflexible orders of his chief, which might be as revolting to the scientific doctrines of the day as they would be detri? mental to the medical welfare of the army and the vast population of this country. One of the main safeguards of the army in India and the public has been, the comparative independence in scientific questions of the Medical Departments of the three Presidencies. It is owing to this constitutional freedom of action that the country lies under such lasting obligations to the Medical Services. Under the existing regime the heads of the ^Medical Departments can give full expression to their views on medical, sanitary, and statistical questions, and in doing so, keep abreast of the "advanced scientific doctrines which regulate the public health, quite irrespective of the opinions and wishes of the several Governments. It woitld be essentially an unwise step It would be much more to curtail these powers in any way. consonant with sound policy nntl wisdom to enlarge them, or to concentrate all the departments of medicine under one distinct head, provided with the mtfans of seeing that his instructions and orders are carried out in tlitiir integrity. The divorce of the sauitarV interests of the country from medicine, was a measure which lias led to most of the conseare now compldined of in high quarters. The quences which union of it with medicine, to which, among men of science, it the will restore be to subordinate, mast be held equilibrium so much contended for in the heterogeneous scheme which lias of the consideration under the Council of the been lately Governor-General. The agitation got up by the Sanitary
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THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.
Department to quash the Medical Departments of the tliree Presidencies, and to raise other quasi and ill-paid Medical Secretaryships under the various Governments, is indicative of the extreme inanition and impoverishment of the Sanitary Department, and of a last struggle for power'and authority. For, if the Viceroy in Council were induced to recommend such a revolutionary change, it must be manifest that the whole real power and patronage of the Medical Department would be virtually vested in the sanitary authority with the Government
of India. The Government of India have now the strongest Medical Department that they have ever possessed since the days of Forsyth and Norman Chevers; and we hope they will pause before they countenance proposals which, under the guise of a temporary economy, are generally understood by medical officers to be really intended by their authors to effect the selfaggrandizement of one man, the Sanitary Commissioner with the Government of India, and the humiliation of a service which has done so much for the true civilization of the millions of British India. We are far from disbelieving that a certain amount of reorganization is not needful to complete the efficiency of the Medical Service. On the contrary, as at present advised, we are of opinion that reorganization is necessary; but we altogether differ from those trlio assert that the first measure to accomplish the object to be attained is the absolute and irrevocable demolition of the head offices of the Medical Departments, hitherto held with honor and distinction by medical officers drawn from the Indian Medical Service. "We arc rather of opinion that the best plan would be to absorb the Sanitary Commissioners into the various Medical Departments, leaving it to the heads of these departments to distribute them, as they may be required, to the local Governments, for the purpose of supervising and controlling the sanitary reformation of India. Thus, it would bo no difficult matter to have the Medical Department permanently located with the Government of India, and to have medical officers, of high standing, rank, and experience, acting under it with the military and civil authorities in every part of the country. Under such an office the medical, sanitary, and statistical concerns of the military and civil population might be dealt with in a manner which would be in every respect conducive to the welfare of the army and people of India. It was thought that when the Sanitary Commissioners were appointed, work would be done which had been left undone by the Medical Departments. What has been the result ? Beports, sanitary and statistical, have been written ad nauseam These have been propped up by Parkes, Simon, and Miss Nightingale in the pages of the Lancct and in Hue-books. But has the Sanitary Department advanced one jot our knowledge of cholera or any other mortal disease ? Echo answers no ! If so, then where is the good reason for longer keeping it in a state of separation from its true patron and parent and protector, the Medical Department??The Englishman.
t
[November 1,
1872.
264
THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.
Department to quash the Medical Departments of the tliree Presidencies, and to raise other quasi and ill-paid Medical Secretaryships under the various Governments, is indicative of the extreme inanition and impoverishment of the Sanitary Department, and of a last struggle for power'and authority. For, if the Viceroy in Council were induced to recommend such a revolutionary change, it must be manifest that the whole real power and patronage of the Medical Department would be virtually vested in the sanitary authority with the Government
of India. The Government of India have now the strongest Medical Department that they have ever possessed since the days of Forsyth and Norman Chevers; and we hope they will pause before they countenance proposals which, under the guise of a temporary economy, are generally understood by medical officers to be really intended by their authors to effect the selfaggrandizement of one man, the Sanitary Commissioner with the Government of India, and the humiliation of a service which has done so much for the true civilization of the millions of British India. We are far from disbelieving that a certain amount of reorganization is not needful to complete the efficiency of the Medical Service. On the contrary, as at present advised, we are of opinion that reorganization is necessary; but we altogether differ from those trlio assert that the first measure to accomplish the object to be attained is the absolute and irrevocable demolition of the head offices of the Medical Departments, hitherto held with honor and distinction by medical officers drawn from the Indian Medical Service. "We arc rather of opinion that the best plan would be to absorb the Sanitary Commissioners into the various Medical Departments, leaving it to the heads of these departments to distribute them, as they may be required, to the local Governments, for the purpose of supervising and controlling the sanitary reformation of India. Thus, it would bo no difficult matter to have the Medical Department permanently located with the Government of India, and to have medical officers, of high standing, rank, and experience, acting under it with the military and civil authorities in every part of the country. Under such an office the medical, sanitary, and statistical concerns of the military and civil population might be dealt with in a manner which would be in every respect conducive to the welfare of the army and people of India. It was thought that when the Sanitary Commissioners were appointed, work would be done which had been left undone by the Medical Departments. What has been the result ? Beports, sanitary and statistical, have been written ad nauseam These have been propped up by Parkes, Simon, and Miss Nightingale in the pages of the Lancct and in Hue-books. But has the Sanitary Department advanced one jot our knowledge of cholera or any other mortal disease ? Echo answers no ! If so, then where is the good reason for longer keeping it in a state of separation from its true patron and parent and protector, the Medical Department??The Englishman.
t
[November 1,
1872.
