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→Extra Assistant Apothecary
===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 , David Harris was working prior to the appointment in a private capacity civil employment in Howrah (1855) and Calcutta (1856) as an apothecary, perhaps as a chemist and druggist. His training and birth details are unknown. He unfortunately appears in C-i-C General Orders 22 Nov 1857, "directing Extra Assistant Apothecary Harris, recently entertained, to proceed by rail to Raneegunge and do duty in the hospital there" . Other orders are dated: *20 January 1858 - Extra Assistant Apothecary D Harris and Extra Assistant Steward J Fegredo, during duty in the depot hospital at Raneegunge to join a detachment of HM 54th Foot proceeding to Sasseram.*26 March 1858 - when another was directed to relieve him as Sasseram and he was sent to Benares depot hospital.*7 April 1858 - to do duty at the Rajghaut Hospital (outskirts of Benares).This was the last record of David Harris and it is assumed he 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).
The ''London Lancet'' 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>
