of Government the coveted posts in Calcutta have been thrown open to all officers belongto the

Bengal Presidency, and we have obduring recent years all the vacant appointments in Calcutta have been conferred on officers either belonging to the North-West Provinces or to the Punjab so that practically the road to Calcutta is through Lahore, &c., though the Punjab and North West officers have in their respective provinces many good ing

served that

-

Jitdian Jitqdipt Kagntti}. NOVEMBER 1895.

BENGAL

MEDICAL SERVICE IN LOWER

With reference to the attention that is obtained

practice

by

it is

unfair

position for the officers of Lower Bengal placed in, and it is time for the Government of Bengal to bestir themselves in these matters, for they cannot expect that good officers will continue to come to Bengal under an

to be

THE PROSPECTS OP THE INDIAN

drawn in the Press to the

Bengal

for which the officers of Lower appear not to be eligible. It is felt that

appointments

being

large amount of private

Officers of the Indian Medi-

cal Service in Lower Bengal, we think it will be useful to throw a little light on the actual posi-

such conditions. With loss of

it becomes

of the Indian Service to enter the Civil Service of the Government of Lower Bengal was

the

the

hope

of securing after

ment in Calcutta.

Bankipur

and

some

With the

Darjeeling,

time

an

appoint-

exception of Dacca, was nothing else

there

to lo>k forward to, and officers made up their minds, with this object in view, to pass a lonety life for years, in an isolated and small unhealthy and malarious station surrounded by paddy-fields with little or no European society. Private practice did in some

at one

time

perhaps help

to

compensate

degree for this isolation, but whatever may have been the case in former times, we are in a position to state, as a fact, that to-diiy the so-called private practice in the majority of cases is

practically nil. It may be pointed

out that for many years have been and are medical schools the past numbers of native medistill turning out large O O

cal men, with the result that every station is crowded with practitioners of various kinds, who

regards private practice among natives have completely ousted the Civil Surgeon. Occasionally the Civil Surgeon as

of the

country

may be called in consultation, but, ently as not, he is called in when all

given over of the patient's recovery.

as

frequ-

hopes are By a ruling

the fall in the

from being the highly-favoured service it is represented to be, while the block in promotion to the administrative ranks, which it is at present

tion of affairs, wherein it will be seen that the prospects instead of being so brilliant and prosperous as described are very poor indeed. Some years ago the chief inducement for Medical Officers

private practice,

value of the rupee and increased cost of living, the civil branch of the Indian Medical Service is far

if it continues, will likely, when render the service still less Instead of it being the rule, as was

suffering from, attractive. case

known,

some

20

or

30 years ago, that promotion took place either

to the administiative ranks

at about the 25th year of service, the average period is now from 30 years or more. True, a few men have attained administrative before

ranks

or

recently

at

an

earlier

period simply

from

the fact that there was a period of 5 years between 1860 and 1865 during which no officer entered the service, but to the general rule.

we

are

now

referring