Doctor

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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:

Other lists:

  • Lists of surgeons, and prior to 1894, Assistant Surgeons may be found in the East-India register and directory, published 1803-1860. The East-India register was superseded by what was initially called The Indian army and civil service list. Later these were separated, and the India army list is the volume which contains the surgeons. Many of the East India register and directory are available online. The online 1838 Bengal Directory also has a list of surgeons refer Directories online. For details of these books in libraries or on microfilm or fiche, refer Directories reading list
  • "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

Other

The British Medical Journal is available online from 1840 and is a source of information, particularly the obituaries. However, it probably has more relevance for English, rather than Scottish doctors. Search the archives directly (it is necessary to first register) or access BMJ and other online journals through PubMed Central (PMC is the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) free digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature).

Historical background

Also see Public health

Working conditions and duties


Appointment

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

Field hospitals

William Lewis M'Gregor, a surgeon himself, writing in his The history of the Sikhs (Vol 1, 1846), describes the work of a regimental surgeon during the 1st Sikh War and calls for field hospitals to be used in future conflicts. "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. "Field Arrangements in India" from Army Hygiene by Charles Alexander Gordon M.D. (1866) describes the Logistics of a Field Hospital, including details of the number of camels required.

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, see botanists and naturalists for more information. 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.

“Doctors as Civil and Political Officers” by Lieut-Col D G Crawford I.M.S from The Indian Medical Gazette, Volume 39, 1904, page 1.

Individuals

A further list of surgeons, who found fame as botanists and naturalists can be found in that article.

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. Photo of memorial to Surgeon William Hamilton on Fibis database
  • William Lewis M’Gregor (or McGregor) 1801-1853. He gained his M.D. at Edinburgh 1825. He was appointed Assistant Surgeon 15 March 1826 and Surgeon 13 January 1842.[1] He took part in the 1st Sikh War as surgeon of the 1st Bengal (European) Fusiliers, also known as the 1st European Light Infantry. He had also resided, for a time, at Lahore, as physician to Runjeet Singh,[2] the Sikh leader (who died in 1839). M’Gregor wrote The History of the Sikhs Volume I and The History of the Sikhs containing an Account of the War between the Sikhs and the British in 1845-46 Volume II both published in 1846 Google Books. He describes how at the end of 1836 he performed galvanism, a type of electric shock therapy on the ailing Runjeet Singh, page 274 of Volume 1. Allen’s Indian Mail, page 673 reported M’Gregor’s death on 11 September 1853.
  • Obituary of Surgeon Major Allan Webb, died 15 September 1863, age 55, entered the Bengal Medical Service in 1835. A second obituary. Obituary from the British Medical Journal. 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 His Obituary was published in the British Medical Journal.

Madras

  • 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
  • Henry Vandyke Carter 1831-1897 (Wikipedia) provided the drawings for the famous medical text book Gray’s Anatomy. He later joined the Bombay Medical Service where he had a distinguished research career and was Principal of the Grant Medical College Bombay.
  • 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)

Other

Notes

  1. ↑ Roll of the Indian Medical Service 1615-1930 by D.G. Crawford
  2. ↑ Dublin University Magazine Volume 29, 1847, page 546
  3. ↑ reprinted in Oliver Wendell Holmes, poet, littérateur, scientist, page 330 by William Sloane Kennedy 1883, Archive.org, originally from Atlantic Monthly, January 1858
  4. ↑ "Words for the hour": a new anthology of American Civil War poetry, edited by Faith Barrett, Cristanne Miller Google Books
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