Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/245

 ciated. The Bai Shirinbai Ratansha Parakh Scholarship is another endowment of the same class, and intended to further the same object. Mr. Ratansha Ardeshir Parakh, by his gift of Rs. 6,000, has furnished another proof of the hold which the cause of medical education for women has taken of the sympathies of the liberal-hearted men of India, and has rendered most substantial help to the object which he has so much at heart. From these donations we may learn that the career which they are intended to open up to the ladies of the Parsi community is one which is held in highest honour by their people, and indications are not wanting to encourage the hope that these ladies will be as ready to avail themselves of their great opportunity as the large-hearted leaders of their community have been to furnish the means for providing it. The name of Sir Dinsha Manekji Petit comes before us again in the offer of the secretaries of the entertainment fund raised in his honour to add to the above endowments for female medical education another of the value of Rs. 6,500. In thus associating Sir Dinsha Manekji Petit with the University and with this department of its work, they have added new honour to a name already identified with schemes of large benevolence intended for the relief of suffering and the advancement of medical science. These are illustrations of the manner in which the great national movement headed by the Countess of Dufferin in India and by Lady Reay in our own Western Presidency, has touched the hearts of the people, and nowhere more deeply than here, where the foundations were so early laid, and where the work has been so efficiently performed. The Lady Reay Gold Medal and Scholarship founded by Mr. Harkissondas Narotamdas is a most appropriate memorial of the wise and devoted labours of the lady, who is so soon to leave our shores, in a cause which owes so much of its success to her energetic and unceasing effort; and it has been a source of very special gratification to us all that we have seen the presentation of the first Lady Reay Gold Medal to Miss Walke, the first lady medical graduate of this University. Another gift which we have to acknowledge on this occasion is that of a sum of about Rs. 2,000, presented by the Fawcett Memorial Committee for the purchase of books dealing with political science. The name of Fawcett is fitly held in highest veneration by multitudes in this country and by none is it more sincerely honoured than by the students of our Indian Universities. We may feel assured that the Fawcett Collection will be prized and used by many of our students and graduates whom Fawcett's writings have introduced to the study of a favourite science. There is another announcement which I have to make in connection with this list of gifts, and I make it