Doctor

A doctor may also be known as a Surgeon or (prior to 1873) an Assistant Surgeon. The term Medical Officer is also used.

This article contains many links to historical online books.

Records

British Library

The British Library information page 'Indian Medical Service' lists records available in the BL. A pdf document by the Wellcome Library lists records in the British Library relating to medicine and health, including manuscripts.

Lists of medical officers

Two particularly useful books, listing service histories etc, are:

• An Alphabetical List of the Medical Officers of the Indian Army 1764-1838 by Edward Dodwell and James S. Miles (1839)
• Roll of the Indian Medical Service 1615-1930' by D.G. Crawford. Review in FIBIS Military Reading List.

Other lists:

• "List of Principal Medical Officers" in Madras from 1651-1800 (Google Books)
• The Lancet (vol 1, 1858) lists the Medical Officers of the Bengal Medical Service who died during the Mutiny (Google Books)
• Army Surgeons in the Afghan War and on the March to Kandahar from Garen Ewing’s website The Second Anglo Afghan War 1878-1880
• Indian Army Officers 1939-1945

Historical background

• The Wellcome Library, London has both books and archival material about the history of medicine.
• "Surgeons In India, Past and Present" "Past" and "Present,1854" The Calcutta Review v. 22 Published 1854 pages 217 and 242
• “European medicine in India from the sixteenth century” (pdf), a transcribed lecture from University College London (2004)
• "Medicine amidst War and Commerce in Eighteenth-Century Madras" by Pratik Chakrabarti, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 2006 Spring; 80(1): 1–38 (open access)
• Medical History of British India, nearly 50 Disease and Public Health reports from 19th and 20th century British India, from the National Library of Scotland, available online.

Working conditions and duties

• Pension situation in Bengal in 1827. Letter in Oriental Herald, Volume 14, 1827 Google Books
• Medical Advice to the Indian Stranger by John McCosh M.D. (1841). This book details the author's photographic work and Army career. He retired in 1856.
• Handbook for Medical Officers of H.M. Service in India by Charles Alexander Gordon M.D. published 1851 (written 1846). Hints on the Duties of Medical Officers.
• "The Loodianah Field Hospital, With Remarks On The State of The Army Medical Department in India" by John Murray, M.D., Field Surgeon, page 158, Medical Times published in 1849 is an account of a Field Hospital after battle in 1846, including medical details, with the slightly wounded carried out on elephants.
• "The Medical Service of the British Army", with a section on India (page 435), The British and Foreign Medico-chirurgical Review Or Quarterly Journal of Practical Medicine and Surgery (1855)
• "Field Arrangements in India" from Army Hygiene by Charles Alexander Gordon M.D. (1866) describes the Logistics of a Field Hospital. Includes details on the number of camels required.
• Madras Quarterly Medical Journal 1839 to 1844 - many interesting articles by Madras surgeons including medical reports on various regiments.

Appointment

• Rules for appointment in 1848 from The Oriental Interpreter and Treasury of East India Knowledge: A Companion to "The Hand-book of British India by Joachim Hayward Stocqueler (1848) page 297 (Google Books)
• Regulations for appointment to the Indian Medical Service in 1905 in the India Office List (Google Books)

For appointment procedures, refer to the Individuals section below and George Aldred.

Non-medical duties

Some surgeons were engaged in work which today would be regarded as scientific or senior administrative roles. Most of the botanists in the earlier years were surgeons, refer Individuals below. WCB Eatwell MD was ‘First Asst. and Opium Examiner. Board of Customs, Salt and Opium’. He was the author of “Report no.1: On the Poppy Cultivation, and the Benares Opium Agency” from Selections from the Records of the Government of Bengal (1851) Google Books.

Individuals

Bengal

• Gabriel Broughton was, perhaps, the most influential doctor in the history of British India. In the year 1636 the daughter of Mughal Emperor, Shah Jehan, was badly burnt following the upset of an oil lamp. The Emperor sent for the English ship's surgeon, Gabriel Broughton, who was able to assist her. In a later incident he treated another lady of the Emperor's harem. In reward for his services he asked that the East India Company be given a charter to trade in Bengal.
• William Hamilton (Wikipedia), a surgeon, died 1717. In gratitude for the success of the medical treatment given to him by Hamilton, the Mughal Emperor, Furrukhsiyar, made generous gifts to the English surgeon. He also allowed the East India Company to purchase about 30 villages which enabled fortification of their position around Calcutta and greatly strengthened their trading presence in Bengal. Hamilton's profession, therefore, played a significant role in establishing the early influence of the East India Company.
• William Griffith (Wikipedia), also a notable botanist.

• “William Griffith 1810-1845” by WH Lang from Makers of British botany; a collection of biographies by living botanists (1913)
• Journals of Travels in Assam, Burma, Bhootan, Afghanistan and the Neighbouring Countries by William Griffith (1847) Archive.org . The initial section contains biographical details.

• Obituary of Surgeon Major Allan Webb, died 15 September 1863, age 55, entered the Bengal Medical Service in 1835. A second obituary. For many years from 1842, in addition to his other positions, he was surgeon to the Lower Orphan School, Calcutta, probably until his retirement, or close to it.
• Autobiography of an Indian Army Surgeon: Or, Leaves Turned Down from a Journal by Wilmington Walford M.D. (published 1854) Google Books.
• Frederic John Mouat 1816-1897, Bengal Surgeon, was a leading figure in the field of education and prison reform, ca 1840-1870 Wikipedia
• Obituary of Assistant-Surgeon W. J. Thomson, Civil Surgeon of Gurgaon (near Delhi), who died 1863. He had “an early death” and appears to have joined the Bengal Medical Service after 1858.
• Dr. William Brooke O'Shaughnessy (1809-1889), modernised treatment for cholera, introduced cannabis to Western medicine, laid first telegraph system in Asia.

• Memoir of Surgeon-Major Sir W. O'Shaughnessy Brooke...etc by M Adams (1889) Archive.org

Madras

Botanists and Naturalists

• Samuel Browne was listed as a Principal Surgeon in Madras 1688-1697 when he was discharged. Samuel Brown died 21 December 1698 at Madras, according to this cemetery record. After his death the following articles were published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (London):

• "An Account of part of a Collection of Curious Plants and Drugs" gathered by Mr Samuel Brown , a Physician at Fort St George in the East Indies There is a subsequent title "Mr.Sam Brown His First Book Of East India Plants" Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 1700 vol. 22 no. 260-276 579-594 "Second Book" Phil. Trans. 1700 vol. 22 no. 260-276 699-721 'Third Book' page 859 (page 18 of the pdf) describes some animals sent by Mr Edward Bulkley, Surgeon from Fort St George Phil. Trans. 1700 vol. 22 no. 260-276 843-862 "Fourth Book" Phil. Trans. 1700 vol. 22 no. 260-276 843-862 "Fifth Book" Phil. Trans. 1700 vol. 22 no. 260-276 1007-1029 "Sixth Book" Phil. Trans. 1702 vol. 23 no. 277-288 1055-1068 "Seventh Book" Phil. Trans. 1702 vol. 23 no. 277-288 1251-1566 "Eighth Book" Phil. Trans. 1702 vol. 23 no. 277-288 1450-1460. However, there is no mention of Mr Sam.Brown for the final volume.

In 1693 Dr Samuel Browne was tried and aquitted by a Grand Jury:

“When Mr. Wheeler, Member of Council, Sea Customer and Chief Justice of Choultry in Chennai, died on August 28, 1693, Dr. Samuel Browne, accepted in writing that due to his fateful mistake, pearl was powdered in a stone mortar wherein arsenic had been beaten before and the mixture was given to Mr. Wheeler as physic who showed the symptom of poison before death. Dr. Samuel Browne and his servant were committed to custody. Dr. Edward Bulkley, the surgeon of the hospital was asked to conduct an autopsy on the body of Mr. Wheeler opined that the suddenness of his death, and the severe symptoms he had laboured under before he died, were greater arguments of poison received, than anything he could trace out by dissection. Dr. Samuel Browne was tried and acquitted by the Grand Jury when the Bill of Ignoramus was brought in. There was dissatisfaction at this result and many thought that a case of criminal negligence had been made out.” From "State Control of Medical Malpractice" by Dr. K. Mathiharan (Published in Law & Medicine, (An Annual Publication of the Institute of Law and Ethics in Medicine, National Law School of India University, Bangalore) Volume 4, 1998 at 88-92)

• Dr Edward Bulkley was a Principal Surgeon 1692-1709 when he transferred to the Civil Service as Member of Council. He resigned in 1713 and died August 1714 at Madras according to this cemetery record. He is mentioned in the "Third Book of Samuel Brown" (see above) and also on this page from the Linnean Society of London website, collecting plants in Bengal and Burma 1702-8, (where the spelling Bulkeley is used). He is probably the Mr Buckly, Chief Surgeon at Fort St George who sent a collection of Chinese medical instruments to the Royal Society, mentioned in this article Phil. Trans. 1 January 1698 vol. 20 no. 236-247 390-392. The autopsy mentioned above is the first recorded medico-legal autopsy performed in India.
• Johann Gerhard Koenig 1728-1785 Wikipedia He worked as a surgeon at the Danish colony at Tranquebar from 1768, as naturalist to the Nawab of Arcot from 1774 and as naturalist with the East India Company at Madras from 1778, according to this link about Tranquebar
• Patrick Russell 1726-1805. Wikipedia He came to India in 1781 and in 1785 was appointed as the East India Company's 'Botanist and Naturalist' at Madras . Russell's viper the venomous snake, whose toxicity is second only to the cobra, is named after him. Green Imperialism: Colonial Expansion, Tropical Island Edens and the Origins of Environmentalism, 1600-1860 by Richard H Grove page 331, including the footnote gives more details including that he was initially an assistant surgeon. “The first snakeman of India” The Hindu “Russell of Russell's viper fame” by R L Jayakody The Ceylon Medical Journal Volume 46, No 2, 2001 June
• Francis Day(Wikipedia) is detailed in this pdf, having joined the Madras Medical Service in 1852. He wrote a 1863 book on Cochin, The land of the Permauls, or, Cochin, its past and its present. He became the most important writer on Indian fish, with his first book on the subject being Fishes of Malabar (archive.org) in 1865.

Other

• Diseases of India by Sir James Annesley, 3rd edition. Google books. Commences with details of his career as a Military Surgeon in the Madras Presidency from 1800 until he retired in 1838, after five years on the Medical Board.
• George Edward Aldred was appointed an Assistant Surgeon in the Madras Medical Service on the 20th of April 1847. This page from Asplin Military History shows the appointment procedures. He was court martialled for unbecoming conduct in July 1848 and dismissed, as this item from Allen’s Indian Mail 1848 shows, but subsequently reinstated.

Bombay

• Andrew Jukes from Encyclopedia Iranica. Enter Jukes in the search box. Appointed Assistant Surgeon 1798.
• Narrative of the Campaign of the Indus in Sind and Kaubool in 1838-9 by Richard Hartley Kennedy M.D. Chief of the Medical Staff of the Bombay Division of the Army of the Indus. 1840 Volume 1 Volume 2
• Obituary of R Markham Carter 1875-1961 from the British Medical Journal. A large part of his career was in Bombay. He was renowned for the stand he took in respect of the appalling conditions suffered by casualties at Basra in Mesopotamia during the First World War.

Royal Army Medical Corps (British Army)

• Andrew Leith Adams (Wikipedia) travelled to India in 1849 with the 64th Regiment of Foot and remained for seven years. Wanderings of a naturalist in India: the western Himalayas, and Cashmere by Andrew Leith Adams MD (1867) Google Books.
• “War in Burma-the Award of the Victoria Cross to Ferdinand Simeon Le Quesne" (pdf) by PH Starling from Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps March 2009. The award was for action in Burma 4 May 1889 when he was a Surgeon Captain with the 2nd Norfolk Regiment. He would have been part of the Royal Army Medical Corps at this time, not the Indian Medical Service. He had later (broken) service in Burma and India until 1909.
• Field Force to Lhasa 1903-1904. Fifty letters home by Captain Cecil Mainprise of the Royal Army Medical Corps who took part in the Tibet Expedition. His obituary in the British Medical Journal 3 March 1951 indicates he had further service in India, including the 3rd Afghan War of 1919.

Other

• Theodore Ludvig Frederick Folly was a Danish surgeon who worked in the Danish colony of Tranquebar “The Medical Skills of the Malabar Doctors in Tranquebar, India, as Recorded by Surgeon T L F Folly, 1798” by Niklas Thode Jensen, PhD student Med Hist. 2005 October 1; 49(4): 489–515.
• Laura and Charles Hope were Baptist medical missionaries from Australia, for most of the period 1893 to 1934, as descrived in the Australian Dictionary of Biography.