Page:On the education of the people of India (IA oneducationofpeo00trevrich).pdf/42

28 judicial and revenue administration from the substitution of cheap native, for dear European agency. Lord now proposed to extend this plan to the medical department, and to raise up a class of native medical practitioners, educated on sound European principles, to supersede the native quacks who, unacquainted with anatomy or the simplest principles of chemical action, prey on the people, and hesitate not to use the most dangerous drugs and poisons. Physicians and surgeons, however, were not to be had ready-made, like judges and collectors. A professional education was necessary, and it was doubtful whether the natives would submit to the conditions which this education implied. A committee was therefore appointed to inquire into and report on the subject.

After a careful investigation, the committee came to the conclusion that it was perfectly feasible to educate native medical men on broad European principles, some of whom might be gradually substituted for the foreign practitioners at the civil and military stations, and others might be sent out among the mass of their countrymen, to give them the inestimable blessing of enlightened medical attendance. With regard to practical human anatomy, they stated it as their opinion