Hi all, The only good thing about a disk crash is that you sometimes find things you had forgotten about. I have been asked often about the training of CAS and MAS students. The enclosed is a copy of a record I found in the Punjab Archives in Lahore during my research time there. This report would eventually end up in London. Some may find it of interest. Jack Lahore, 6th August 1878 From T.E.B. Brown, Esquire, Principal, Lahore Medical School, To The Officiating Secretary to Government, Punjab I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your office memo No. 2716, dated 29th July, and of its enclosures, relating to the mode of education of Medical Pupils at the Lahore Medical School and the standard which each student has to pass for the public service, and in compliance with this to forward the following report. Report on the Education of Native Medical Pupils at the Lahore Medical School. The new Medical Pupils join the Lahore Medical School on the 1st of May in each year, and they are then expected to have already received instruction in dispensing and dressing wounds in the Military Hospitals or Civil Dispensaries to which they have been attached during the previous year, and also to have acquired some knowledge of drugs and their properties, and of rudimentary Anatomy. After they reach the School they receive separate daily lectures on the anatomy of the bones and ligaments, and also on Materia Medica of the mineral drugs with the rudiments of Chemistry. These lectures are continued throughout the months of May, June and July, and are accompanied with viva voce examinations, in each of which marks from 0 to 4 are awarded to each student according to his proficiency; those who answer correctly most questions receive the highest number of marks. The examinations are conducted by each Native medical teacher in his own subject, and the results are added up every month and shown to the Principal of the School. Care is taken to make the lectures as practical as possible, by showing to the students the actual objects described, such as the bones and the drugs, and the lectures are further illustrated by drawings and models. At the end of July a general examination is held on all the lectures which have been delivered during the past three months; 100 marks are assigned to the answers given in this examination, and the number gained by each student is added to the number of weekly marks, the maximum of which is usually 48, and the stipends are altered according to the total marks obtained. During August and September the vacation occurs, and the students return to their homes but come back to the Medical School on 1st October for the winter session. During the first winter session the same subjects, Anatomy and Materia Medica, are taught in two separate courses of daily lectures with weekly examinations, just as during the summer months; but the course on Anatomy includes the rudiments of Physiology and description of all the organs and tissues of the body, and is illustrated by actual dissections of the dead body, performed by the students themselves under the superintendence of the lecturer. In this way a practical knowledge of the tissues and organs of the body is obtained more fully than by drawings and models. The lectures on Materia Medica also are supplemented by practice in dispensing in the Mayo Hospital, and the students are taught to recognise all the important drugs by their external qualities from a separate collection. At the end of March a general examination is held on all the subjects taught during the winter by the Native teachers, and the results are as before, communicated to the Principal, the maximum marks being usually 100 for the final and 96 for the weekly examination. During the second year the students attend a repetition of the same course of lectures, and on the same subjects; but they are expected to answer the questions at the weekly and final examinations much more accurately, and to dissect more frequently and completely, and to learn the different preparations of the Indian Pharmacopoeia more accurately. In addition, the students also receive during their second year a complete course of lectures of the science and practice of medicine, with weekly examinations as in the former subjects. They also receive a course of lectures on Surgery, and they are taught practically to bandage and to perform the minor surgical operations by the lecturer on surgery during the summer. And during the vacation a number of them are employed in dispensing medicines and dressing patients in the Mayo Hospital. The examinations are, as before, held every week and also at the end of each session, and the marks are awarded in the same way as during the first year. During the third year the students are employed in the practical work of the hospital, attending both the out and the in-door patients. They accompany the Professors, who instruct them in the mode of recognising and treating disease practically, and they write down the prescriptions given either in Urdu or English; they also perform the minor operations, such as drawing teeth, lancing gums and bandaging on the out-patients, and they take it in turns to remain at the hospital day and night and to attend to any urgent cases under the direction of the House Surgeon. They likewise receive practical instruction in the common major operations, which they learn to perform on the dead body during their third summer session, and they attend the weekly examinations that are held on the subjects of Anatomy and Materia Medica with the 1st and 2nd years' men, and on Medicine and Surgery with those of the second year, so that they are compelled to read over again all their lecture notes. Marks are assigned at these weekly examinations precisely as in former years. In addition to this, the students are taught to prepare the returns of the hospital by taking the different classes of out and in-patients and drawing up monthly returns in the prescribed method, and also by taking account of the diets ordered for each of the in-patients. At the end of the third winter session, the final examination as to the fitness of each Medical Pupil to pass into the public service is held, and this differs from the former examination, in the examination being performed by the English Professors and not by the Native teachers of this class. At first each Professor examines each student in one branch of medical science separately, giving a number of questions and assigning 200 marks as the maximum to be obtained by answering all the questions. Unless the student answers correctly more than three-quarters of the questions in every subject, he is not allowed to pass. After this a general examination is held on each subject by all the Professors cojointly with the Deputy Surgeon-General of the Circle, in which any student who has answered imperfectly in any branch of Medical Science is examined practically in that branch until all the officers present agree as to the fitness of the pupil to pass or otherwise. Care is taken to make all these examinations as practical as possible, by requiring the students to recognise the various objects presented to them, such as drugs, human bones and surgical instruments, and also to bandage the limbs of persons; and unless each student answers in a manner which satisfies all the officers present, he is not allowed to pass. Subsequently an examination of each student as to his freedom from any disqualifying disease is held, and he is then admitted into the service of Government. No. 2930, dated Lahore, 16th August 1878 From J. G. Cordery, Esquire, Officiating Secretary to Government, Punjab, To the Officiating Secretary to the Government of India, Home Department In reply to your No. 10-356, dated 9th ultimo, I am desired to forward, for the information of the Government of India, copy of a letter from the Principal, Lahore Medical School, No. 521, dated 6th instant, and enclosures, reporting on the mode of examination and standard of qualifications required from Medical Pupils at the Lahore Medical School before they are passed out into Government Service.