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This The ''Madras journal of literature and science'' detailed the Madras Medical School (established 1835) in an [http://books.google.com/books?id=2vsEAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA265 Google Books link1838 article], (published 1838), is about the Madras Medical School, established 1835. Private Students, or persons not in the Public Service, were admitted from August 1838 as the next .<ref>[http://books.google.com.au/books?id=OG8FAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA49 link''Report on the medical topography and statistics of the Presidency Division of the Madras army''], (published Thorpe, 1842) shows. </ref>
General Order 200 dated 15 June 1847 is about Apprenticeships in the Bengal Subordinate Medical Department. It sets out that candidates would sit an examination to become an apprentice. Those successful would serve for two years as an apprentice in the Hospital of a European Regiment or General Hospital. They then may be selected by the Medical Board for a studentship in the Medical College. They would then attend a two year course of study comprising Anatomy, Dissection, Materia Medica, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, the practice of Medicine and Surgery and more especially clinical instruction in connection with the last two branches. At the end of the two years they were to undergo an examination. If successful they were to be drafted to European Regiments or to the General Hospital, there to wait their turn for promotion as Assistant Apothecaries or Assistant Stewards. Promotion to Apothecary was also to be by examination. This Order is in a book called ''General Report on Public Instruction in the Lower Provinces of the Bengal Presidency for 1847-1848'', Appendix E, no. XI, page clxvi. *[http://books.google.com/books?id=H8wCAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PR166 Read the complete Order].*[http://books.google.com/books?id=c4gIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA69 Further background information] (page 69) However, when the [[Indian Mutiny|Mutiny]] occurred (1857), the classes at the Medical College for Hospital Apprentices were broken up. Due to the shortage of medical personnel, and the demand for them in the regiments, this situation continued for over ten years [in Bengal]. A decision was made in July 1868 to recommence classes for the Hospital Apprentices at the Medical Schools. <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=oLkTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA158 Full article, page 158 ''Indian Medical Gazette''] page 158, July 1868]</ref>
Published in In 1841, page 5 of ''Medical Advice to the Indian Stranger'' by John McCosh stated, in respect of the situation in Bengal,:<blockquote>“They enter the service as hospital-apprentices, on the pay of 33 rupees a month; after ten years service they are promoted either to assistant-apothecaries or assistant-stewards, on an allowance of 70 rupees; and, after about nine years in that grade, they are promoted to apothecaries with the pay of 140 rupees a month, or stewards with the pay of 120 rupees. To every European regiment, whether Royal or Company's, there is an apothecary and a steward attached, with each his assistant.” <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=4y5WftsInfgC&pg=PA5 Full article''Medical Advice to the Indian Stranger''] by John McCosh (1841) p5</ref></blockquote> In earlier years the assistant apothecaries were promoted much more quickly. William Hannah was promoted from Assistant Apothecary to Apothecary in December 1824 (''The Oriental Herald and Colonial Review'' Volume V, April to June 1825, <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=DB0YAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA530 ''The Oriental Herald and Colonial Review''] Volume V, April to June 1825, page 530]) </ref> when he was about 22 years old, and there is an 1818 reference to Apprentice Henry Anderson who was appointed directly from Apprentice to Apothecary (''Asiatic Journal'' Vol VI .<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=OPbiZPTdVUAC&pg=PA507 ''Asiatic Journal''] Vol VI, June-December 1818]). </ref>
[http://books.google.com/books?id=oA8CAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA354 The ''London Lancet, Volume 2 1859''], (Google Books) page 354 refers refered to the grievances of the Hospital Apprentices “to see a number of strangers admitted into the service with the rank of assistant apothecary, who never served as apprentice in it, in preference to the apprentices, of whom it is said that upwards of forty passed members await promotion. Undoubtedly, in periods of emergency, rules may be transgressed when necessary to secure the efficiency of the service, and it may be desirable, at a particular moment, to secure the aid of skilled civilians to whom adequate rank and pay must at once be offered ...”<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=oA8CAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA354 ''London Lancet, Volume 2 1859''], (Google Books) page 354</ref>
convert first part of article to footnotes
''See also, details of some individual [[Apothecaries]].''
Ancestors in British India often followed the professions profession of '''Apothecary''' (title changed in 1894 to '''Assistant Surgeon''') and it is hoped that this article will help you to track yours down and learn more about how they lived and worked.
==Overview==
====Military or Civilian?====
The second problem concerns whether they are Military or Civilian and the answer to this is almost always the former, although they could be posted as Civil Surgeons to hospitals and even jails. This article is about those Apothecaries who worked for the Government as part of the Military establishment. However, there were some Apothecaries who worked in a private capacity, for example as a Chemist and Druggist. <ref> The [http://library.wellcome.ac.uk Wellcome Library], London has the article "European Pharmacies in Colonial India" by Harkishan Singh in the ''Pharmceutical Historian'', Vol. 31, no. 4 (Dec. 2001). </ref> Details about these Apothecaries may be sought in the Commercial sections of [[Directories ]] such as [http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~poyntz/India/directories.html Thackers].
====Crawford’s Roll of the Indian Medical Service====
A further frequently asked question is why an Assistant Surgeon ancestor does not appear in ''Crawford’s Roll of the Indian Medical Service 1614-1930''. Apothecaries as members of the [[Indian Subordinate Medical Department]], rather than the superior [[Indian Medical Service]], generally are not listed in Crawford, except for some reason, those in the [[Madras Presidency]]. It should be noted that IMS used the title Assistant Surgeon for its lower ranks until 1873 and that the ISMD used the same title after 1894. Therefore if your Assistant Surgeon appears with that title before 1873, he should be in the IMS and will not be an Apothecary.
Medical personnel appointed to the IMS will almost always have been educated in the UK, even if they were born in India. They always held higher medical ranking. [http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/21858/pages/976 This London Gazette article] sets set out the requirements for Assistant-Surgeons in the service of the [[East India Company ]] in March 1856.
Conversely, however brilliant, the Indian born and educated men were trained in India and provided service in the ISMD, on lower pay scales. Some did rise in seniority, but would always be 'inferior' to their colleagues in the IMS. As the years went by, this perceived inferiority became an issue to be addressed. There are examples of men in the ISMD trained elsewhere, although these were in the minority. For example, The London Gazette Oct 17, 1919 lists under ''To be Senior Asst Surgeon with rank of Lieutenant: 1st class Asst Surgeons, 10th Feb 1919, Frederick William Mathews, L.R.C.P and S.I., L.M (Dub)'' ie Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians (London) and Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (LRCSI), coupled with a Licence in Midwifery.
====British Library definition====
The [[India Office Records|India Office]] Family History Search, in its Dictionary , gives the following description of Apothecary:
:"The title given to the various grades of warrant officer in the Indian Military Subordinate Medical Service. The rank of Apothecary was abolished in the Subordinate Medical Service in 1894 and replaced by that of Assistant Surgeon. Apothecaries in the Indian Army undertook general medical duties - by the early 19th century the word was used in the more general sense of medical practitioner as well as in its original meaning of pharmacist."
The word 'Service' is not quite accurate in the definition above and should be replaced by 'Department'. Surgeons trained in Great Britain, held covenanted positions in the Medical Departments of the Presidencies and later in the Indian Medical Service and were of officer rank in the Army. The European establishment of the Subordinate Medical Departments of the [[presidencies]] (with abbreviations such as Sub Medical Dept, Sub-Med Dept, S-Med Dept, SMD.) and of the later Indian Subordinate Medical Department (ISMD) consisted of the uncovenanted positions of Apothecaries and [[Steward (Medical)|Stewards]], Assistant Apothecaries and Assistant Stewards, together with those in training for these roles called [[Hospital or Medical Apprentice]]s. The first four positions were of [[Warrant Officer]] rank (see ,<ref>See [http://books.google.com/books?id=LBq1AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA255 ''Madras Quarterly Journal of Medical Science'' 1863 v. 7](Google Books), </ref> but this rank did not apply to Hospital or Medical Apprentices. The members of the SMD were almost always locally born and recruited, although there were the odd exceptions. The link just quoted is a Google Books link, as are most of the links which follow.
==The Early Years==
===Training===
In [[Bengal (Presidency)|Bengal]], a formal scheme to train apothecaries commenced following a [[General Order of the Governor General in Council, June 15th 1812|General Order dated June 15, 1812]] by the [[Governor General (reported in the ''Calcutta Gazette'' dated Thursday, July 2, 1812 (Vol LVII, No 1479) ]] which “approved a Plan submitted to him by the Medical Board, for the instruction of Boys from the Upper and Lower Orphan Schools and Free School, to serve as Compounders and Dressers, and ultimately as Apothecaries and Sub Assistant Surgeons in the Medical Department of this Presidency...The Medical Board shall select 24 Boys of 14 or 15 years of age, from the above Institutions, in the choice of whom the Governors of these schools are enjoined to afford every possible assistance.” <ref>The order as copied here was reported in the ''Calcutta Gazette'' dated Thursday, July 2, 1812 (Vol LVII, No 1479)</ref>
The Upper Orphan School was the Military Orphan School for Officers’ Children and the Lower Orphan School was the Military Orphan School for the children of Warrant Officers and [[soldier]]s. Not all the children were [[orphans]]. The Free School was for children of non military fathers. The background of the boys from the Lower Orphan School was approximately 25% European and 75% Eurasian (or East Indian or from 1911 [[Anglo Indian]]), with a European soldier father and Indian or Eurasian mother. The percentage of Eurasians in the Upper Orphan School was higher, as orphans with European parents were returned to England, provided they had family there who could care for them.
Subordinate Medical Departments were also established in [[Madras (Presidency)|Madras]] in 1812, and a little later in [[Bombay (Presidency)|Bombay]].
Medical College training for Hospital Apprentices was introduced in 1847 in Bengal following the system that had previously been successfully introduced in Madras. "General Order 200" dated 15 June 1847 is about Apprenticeships in the Bengal Subordinate Medical Department. It sets out that candidates would sit an examination to become an apprentice. Those successful would serve for two years as an apprentice in the Hospital of a European Regiment or General Hospital. They then may be selected by the Medical Board for a studentship in the Medical College. They would then attend a two year course of study comprising Anatomy, Dissection, Materia Medica, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, the practice of Medicine and Surgery and more especially clinical instruction in connection with the last two branches. At the end of the two years they were to undergo an examination. If successful they were to be drafted to European Regiments or to the General Hospital, there to wait their turn for promotion as Assistant Apothecaries or Assistant Stewards. Promotion to Apothecary was also to be by examination.<ref>This Order is in a book called ''General Report on Public Instruction in the Lower Provinces of the Bengal Presidency for 1847-1848'', Appendix E, no. XI, page clxvi. [http://books.google.com/books?id=H8wCAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PR166 Full Order], [http://books.google.com/books?id=c4gIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA69 Further background information].</ref>
The Bombay Medical Board issued new Rules for training Medical Apprentices dated 2nd April 1851. They were similar to Bengal, but with required three years of Medical College prior to becoming an Assistant Apothecary with progression to Steward, then Apothecary.<ref>Pages 235 to 246 [http://books.google.com/books?id=38AIAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA2-PA235 ''Report of the Board of Education, Bombay'' ] January 1,1850 to April 30, 1851 (Published 1851), pp235-246. [http:<//books.google.com/books?id=38AIAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA2-PA235 Full article] ref>
It is interesting to note that from 1869 until the founding of the King Edward VII College of Medicine in [[Singapore]], apprentice Apothecaries were also recruited from schools in that region and trained in the Madras Medical College. <ref>Full details are given in [http://www.annals.edu.sg/pdf/34VolNo6200506/V34N6p4C.pdf "The Founding of the Medical School in Singapore in 1905"] by YK Lee. There is further mention in [http://www.sma.org.sg/smj/4705/4705cen1.pdf. “The early history of pharmacy in Singapore”] by YK Lee ''Singapore Medical Journal'' 2006 May;47(5):436-43.</ref>
Formal training for the Subordinate Medical Department, Hyderabad commenced when the Bolarum Medical School was established in 1839 to “qualify India-born lads for all the subordinate medical grades and duties of the [Nizam’s] Army”. On graduation, they were qualified to be 2nd Dressers. Refer <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=vwQHAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA346 “An Account of the Medical School at Bolarum”] from ''The Madras Quarterly Medical Journal Volume 1 1839''. </ref> In 1846 the Bolarum Medical School was closed, as it was no longer needed, and the Hyderabad Medical School at Chuddergha(u)t, (now the Osmania Medical College) was then established, refer this .<ref>[http://www.omcalumni.org link"How it all began"], Osmania Medical College Alumni Association website. </ref> In 1868, according to correspondence in the ''Times of India'' dated 11 March 1868 and 18 March 1868, reported that “the assistant apothecaries of the Hyderabad Contingent have all been promoted to apothecaries”... “the designation they now bear ( assistant apothecary) was allowed them by Government not many years ago”. <ref>Correspondence in the ''Times of India'' dated 11 March 1868 and 18 March 1868</ref> The correspondence refers to the training in the Bolarum Medical School. It is unclear whether all the apothecaries referred to were trained in the period 1839-1846. It seems more likely the Hyderabad Medical School continued this training.
===Promotion===
However, it seems the situation did change and that promotion became much slower. When William Hannah became an apothecary in December 1824, ten were appointed assistant apothecaries. Of these, three became apothecaries in January 1834, almost exactly nine years later. (One <ref>Of the others, one became a steward in September 1826, one was on the invalid pension from December 1833. The others were probably dead. Dates are from the [http://books.google.com/books?id=O94NAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA245 1838 Bengal Directory].) </ref> So it does seem that if an apothecary was appointed from 1834 onwards he would probably be aged in his thirties at date of appointment which may help to indicate a date of birth (if not otherwise known).
===Extra Assistant Apothecary===
A few cases have been heard of where appointments have been made to the rank of Extra Assistant Apothecary, in the Bengal SMD. These appear to have been made following the [[Indian Mutiny]] when demands for trained personnel would have been great. In one case the Extra Assistant Apothecary appears to have been working prior to the appointment in a private capacity in Calcutta as an apothecary, perhaps as a chemist and druggist. His training and birth details are unknown. He unfortunately died soon after. In another case, the Extra Assistant Apothecary was born and trained in Britain. Thomas Baron appears in the list of Extra Assistant Apothecaries in the 1861 edition of the New Calcutta Directory, the only known list, as appointed 29 April 1858. Born in Manchester in January 1837, the son of a Chemist and Druggist, he appears in the England 1851 census as a scholar aged 14. In 1858 he would have been 21. Family word of mouth says he went to India as some sort of a Medical Officer. Possibly he had been apprenticed to his father. Interestingly, he subsequently appears in the lists of Hospital Apprentices with appointment date 10 October 1861, indicating that at least in his case, his appointment in 1858 had not been permanent. (He then appears to have sat all the required examinations before receiving an appointment as an Assistant Apothecary).
There were similar appointments to the rank of Extra Assistant Steward, who also appear in the 1861 ''New Calcutta Directory '' list. Also see '''Individuals''' belowSee also the individual [[Apothecaries]] page.
===Duties===
The following 1855 description of the duties of apothecaries and stewards, and training, is in an article called "The Medical Services of the British Army" in ''The British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review'':<ref> [http://books.google.com/books?id=akkBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA444 "The Medical Services of the British Army"], ''The British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review or Quarterly Journal of Practical Medicine and Surgery'', Vol XV, January-April 1855. The article starts on page 411, but the relevant pages are 444-447.</ref>
:“An invaluable appendage of the Indian army is the subordinate medical department attached to it. This, in Bengal, consists of the European establishment, and of a special class of subordinate agency for the native army, and for duty in civil hospitals appropriated to natives.
:In the recent Burmese campaign, and in the late Punjaub war, they were found most efficient field-assistants; and we are able, from personal knowledge, to state that some of them are more efficient members of the profession, and generally better informed, than some assistant-surgeons with whom we have come in contact, armed with degrees and diplomas from British schools of old and great pretensions. (Note: Remember that at this date assistant surgeon was an IMS title).
:The stewards and their assistants are charged with all the details relating to the food, clothing, and similar interior economy of military hospitals. Both classes aid the surgeon in the preparation of official reports and statements." [http://books.google.com/books?id=akkBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA444 Full article]
'''Change of Duties'''<br> There is a British Library catalogue entry '''IOR/F/4/661/18358 Mar 1821''' which appears to be in respect of Bengal: Appointment of J.T. Hodgson as Veterinary Surgeon to the Governor General's Body Guard - he is to select and train eight Assistant Apothecaries as Veterinary Surgeons for the Light Cavalry Regiments.
