A biographical sketch of James Ranald Martin, Esq., F.R.S., surgeon in the Bengal Army, and late Presidency Surgeon and Surgeon to the Native Hospital of Calcutta.

Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A biographical sketch of James Ranald Martin, Esq., F.R.S., surgeon in the Bengal Army, and late Presidency Surgeon and Surgeon to the Native Hospital of Calcutta. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    from India, proposed such a work to him; but he declined for two reasons—first, that he was an utter stranger in London, and might be supposed by the public to be writing himself into practice; and secondly, that he had not had the necessary experience. It was only after eleven years’ observation on the largest scale, extending over thousands of cases, that Mr. Martin ventured on this duty, for such he conceived it to be, having lived amongst Indians, and having been exten- sively consulted by persons returning from and going out to the East Indies, the West Indies, Africa, Australia, South Ame- rica, the Mediteri’anean—persons, in fact, from all climates— who not only come, but are brought and sent by the most eminent of the profession. These essays are but part of a larger work in preparation by Mr. Martin. They contain, however, much that is highly im- portant respecting the curious modification both of physiolo- gical and pathological conditions, and of the action of remedies, produced by tropical climates. Mr. Martin has had the opportunity, which can happen to few, of tracing the British constitution from the shores of this country to India, treating there its varied and fearful diseases, and of following it home to the sequelae of evils to which the tropical invalid is then obnoxious. These opportunities he has concentrated upon the treatment of the disorders to which persons who have been deteriorated by tropical influences are exposed upon their return to Europe. And now, we may ask, what have been the public recompences of services such as we have been but partially and imperfectly recording? To an officer who has so served, to one who has been so confided in and considered by so many eminent persons, what have been his honorary distinc- tions or rewards? To Mr. Martin’s personal friends amongst the East India Directors, and to those of them who have long known and befriended him, he feels that he is under deep obligation, and of this he will ever retain the keenest sense. But the Court of Directors, as we have seen, has denied to Mr. Martin a pension to which we consider that