Official report on the medical topography and climate of Calcutta : with brief notices of its prevalent diseases, endemic and epidemic / by James Ranald Martin.

Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Official report on the medical topography and climate of Calcutta : with brief notices of its prevalent diseases, endemic and epidemic / by James Ranald Martin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    Let others try their best on the same objects ; and, for the rest, time, observation, and above all—comparison,—will do for our science what it has, and is doing for others. To propose a general measure, or to have a direct perception of its utility, it is not necessary, nor does it always follow, that a man should be competent to carry through the said plan in all its details. I pretend only to the first; the second I leave in the hands of my abler brethren of the Indian Medical Services :—nor should any one be deterred by the circumstance that the public too often passes lightly over subjects on which he may have bestowed both time and labour ; for this must necessarily happen when the science is so intricate and little known as that of climate is : again, on such a subject, a person of the most ordinary capacity can find fault, and point out defects ;—but I can assure such that it requires much knowledge of no ordinary kind and scope to supply them. It was at the suggestion of the author, that the order was passed by the Supreme Government in 1835, for requiring from the Medical Services of the three Presidencies of India, reports on the Medical topography of the country generally. The proposal was carried into effect through the direct act of the Government, the Medical Board’s opinions having, at the time, afforded it but a very equivocal support. In 1838 it was proposed by the author to the Medical Board, in con- tinuation, to re-model, by means of a Committee, the reports of Military and Civil Hospitals, with a view to obtaining information on the Medical statistics of the country. It was likewise proposed to examine the records of the General Hospital of this Presidency. It was thought that the numerous, important and interesting facts connected with the subject of our climate and Medical statistics, might be