Notes on the condition of the Indian medical services / by John Macpherson, M. D. (Assisant surgeon, Bengal Army).

  • Macpherson, John, 1817-1890
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes on the condition of the Indian medical services / by John Macpherson, M. D. (Assisant surgeon, Bengal Army). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    essentially non combatants, still the Service has been pleased with the recognition of its claims; we only wish it had been of a more practical nature, and not like the revival of the obsolete titles of Physician General, Surgeon General and Senior Surgeon, giving us empty titles, instead of substantial ^If the Court would do anything to improve the condition of the surgeons, we should less regret what has now become the almost total exclusion of medical officers from political employment, for which they are surely as well- fitted as the other members of the Military Service. Besides this exclusion, the Medical Service has another grievance of which it has good reason to complain. Of course in purely Military matters, the Surgeon must always yield to his Commanding Officer, whatever his rank may be, but in mixed committees, as in common examinations tor the collo- ouial, the idea of a senior surgeon ranking, as he is made to do under a young interpreter, is quite preposterous, lhe rank of superintending surgeons and of Members of the Board? is also not sufficiently defined. Fortunately these things are matters of minor importance, and though they are sometimes, a little galling on duty, a medical officer has usually himself to thank for it, if his proper position in society is not conceded to him. We have recently heard that another question, which je thought had long ago been settled m the case of Mr SmXry so well known to the service as a gentleman and scWar^has been again re-opened, the right of assistant urgeons in civil stations to expect fees from civilians. Lord W Bentinck, decided in that case, that a civilian was bound to pay not for attendance on himself, but for attendance onEamily. We can scarcely suppose that any member of so wdl-paid a Service as the civil, can have the shab- binessTo endeavour to re-open the question, unless under cir- crsLnccsof great provocation The matter should, how- ever if possible, be definitely set at rest. ^ , a' grievance much felt is this, that the Medical Officer of a regiment or of a civil station, when he ^ for a few months on sick certificate, forfeits all Staff pay, and £ reduced to his mere Military allowances, while other Omental and Civil Officers continue to draw a moiety of theTstaff pay; a civil surgeon also cannot be absent from his sSn for more than six months on any account, without incurring the risk of losing it.