[Report on cholera in Calcutta].

  • Macnamara, Nottidge Charles, 1832-1918.
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: [Report on cholera in Calcutta]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    1/24
    oo Before considering the bearing of the figures contained in the tables appended to this communication; I wish briefly to explain my reasons for addressing you on a subject of the kind; and placing my work at your disposal; rather than attempting to utilize it in this country. It is probably unnecessary to enter into an account of the origin and progress of the Sanitary Department lately established in India; which has so rapidly grown into favour, at the present time apparently supplanting the authorities of the Indian Medical Department; hut I may observe that the Government of this country has at its command an organized Service of Medical Officers unsurpassed by auy iu the world, and capable of doing great things if only judiciously bandied. In every district of British India a well-paid and highly-educated medical man is located, directly under the orders of Government; iu addition to these district officers there are a number of professional men scattered over the country, who are equally amenable to Government, although in the Military Department. It seems to me, with a force of this kind at the disposal of the authorities, that there should he no difficulty iu tracing the progress of Asiatic Cholera over India. But this end can hardly be attained, if data derived from certain classes of the community only are taken into consideration; for instance, the mortality of our convicts or soldiers in any particular locality by no means of necessity represents that of the civil population. A case in point is referred to in the Madras Journal of Medicine, page 408, (1870), where it is shewn that the evidence detailed in Dr. Brydeu’s Report, (circulated by the Imperial Sanitary Commissioner, page 4), and derived from statistics of cholera among the Jail and Military population of the Central Provinces, did not at the time represent the death-rate from this disease among the civil population. Other instances of a like nature might be adduced, shewing the necessity for correlating the reports of the Medical Service in India, of husbanding, in fact, the potential force it is endowed with, so that its dynamic influence may be exercised with concentrated power, upon one or more of the numerous evils it lias to cope with. Considerations such as these led me, as far back as 1866, to make the follow- ing proposal to the Government of India, through the Home Secretary, Mr. E. C. Bayley :— (I.) “ Every Civil Surgeon throughout British India should be called on to send in a “ monthly report regarding the advent, progress, or any circumstances connected with cholera “ cases that may come under their notice from 1st Jauuary 1867 to 31st December 1867.