Page:A History of the Indian Medical Service, 1600-1913 Vol 1.djvu/227

 CHAPTER XIV

STRENGTH FROM TIME TO TIME

" The work under our labour grows."

Milton, Paradise Lost, IX, 208.

From the earliest times the East India Company seem to have sanctioned a medical of&cer, when one was available, for each of their permanent Factories. Appointments to these posts were usually made from among the Surgeons of the Company's Indiamen.

A second Surgeon at Fort St. George was sanctioned in a Company's General Letter dated 24th Dec, 1675, and in Aug., 1676, Bezahel Sherman arrived to fill the post. Previous to this date a Surgeon's Mate, Henry MaUory, had been appointed. The post of second Surgeon was disallowed by the Court with effect from 30th Nov., 1697; but was again instituted from 24th July, 1710.* In the following year the Council of Fort St. George give the strength of the medical estabUshment required at the Fort as two Surgeons and two Mates. Cons, of 21st July, 1711, after noting the appointment of Anthony Supply as Surgeon, vice Chadsley, deceased, continue —

" The number of Company's Servants and Souldiers in this Garrison requireing two able Surgeons and two very good Mates if we knew where to gett them."

There were also, at this time, a Surgeon and a Mate at Fort St. David, a Surgeon at Masulipatam or Vizagapatam, sometimes one at each of these factories, and one or more medical officers serving on the West Coast, in Sumatra.

In the Western Presidency a Surgeon was always employed on the staff of the Factory at Surat. During the greater part

First Half of the Eighteenth Century.
 * See Chap. VII, Early History; Madras and the Coast, and Chap. X, The