Jttdiait JKUdipl OCTOBER, 1897.

Nec manus nuda, nec intellectus sibi per miss us,

multum valet; instruments et auxiliis res perjicitur, quibus opus est non minus ad intellectum quam ad manum.?Bacon.

"INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE."

Its Past.

The first number of the Indian Medical Gazette was published on January 1st, 18GG, therefore it was started within a year of the

time when the most senior members of the

Indian Medical Service now on the active list, obtained their commissions.

Throughout the whole of its past history the

Indian Medical Gazette has been intimately associated with the members of this Service. The credit of its inception was due to the late Deputy- Surgeon-General D. B. Smith, the first editor, who, like most of his successors, belonged to the Indian Medical Service. This remarkable man

entered the Service in November 1855 : served

with distinction during the Indian Mutiny : acted

successively as Civil Surgeon of Delhi, Mus-

soorie, Patna, Dacca, and Howrah: became the first Sanitary Commissioner with the Govern- ment of Bengal in 1863, when he had but eight c3 J O

years' service, and founded the Indian Medical Gazette within ten }7ears of his landing in

India. Afterwards he was appointed Principal of the Medical College, and First Physician in

the Medical College Hospital, Calcutta. When

he left India in 1885 he was elected Professor

of Military Medicine and Tropical Diseases, at the Army Medical School, Netley, where he died four years later.

During the thirty odd years of its existence, the Indian Medical Gazette has not changed '

its form, and its scope and aims are similar

to-day to what they were in the beginning. On the title-page of the first number it is called " A Monthly Record of Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics, Jurisprudence, and the Collateral Sciences; and of General Medical Intelligence, Indian and

European." The present title is somewhat abbre- viated ; but the range of subjects is very much the same, except that more attention is devoted to Public Health, largely owing to the influence of Dr. W. J. Simpson, the last editor, and also because this science has made such immense

strides during the intervening period. The following is a list of the editors:?

David Boyes Smith ... ... 1866

John Purefoy Colles ... ... 1867

Charles K. Francis ... ... 1868

James Tyrell Carter Boss ... 1869-70

Charles Nottidge Macnamara ... 1871-73

Kenneth McLeod ... ?. 1871-92

John Gay French ... ... 1875-76

Lawrence Austine Waddell ... 1884-85

William John Simpson ... 1889-97

Alexander Crombie ... ... 1892-93

Of these eminent names that of Brig.-Surgn.- Lieut.-Col. Kenneth McLeod is most prominently and closely associated with the Indian Medical Gazette, inasmuch as he so ably conducted it

during the space of twenty-two j'ears, a period which amounts to over two-thirds of its life-

history. Since his departure from India, five

years ago, he has not severed his connection

with the journal, for he continues to be one of its most regular contributors.

Dr. McLeod was the first man of the first

batch of Indian Medical Service cadets who studied at Netley. Curiously enough he came to India in the same month and the same year that the Indian Medical Gazette first made its

appearance. His early stations were Jessore and Jalpaiguri, his work in which soon attracted the notice of the Government of Bengal, so that in

1869 he was appointed Secretary to a Commis- sion on Indian Cattle Diseases. This led to his

being appointed Secretary to the Surgeon-General for Bengal in 1871. From 1880 onwards he was

successively Professor of Anatomy and of Sur-

gery at the Medical College, and held the colla- teral charges of Second and First Surgeon at

the Medical College Hospital, Calcutta. Since he retired in 1892 he has been associated with Sir Joseph Fayrer on the Medical Board at the India Office, and quite recently he has been ap- pointed to the chair of Military Medicine and

382 INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE. [Oct. 1897.

Tropical Diseases at the Army Medical School, Netley.

Reference to the other editors must be defer-

red to a future occasion. At present we must

pass on merely to glance at a list of the publish- ers of the Indian Medical Gazette :?

Gr. "VVyman & Co. ... ... 1866-82

"W. Newman & Co. ... ... 1883-84

Thacker, Spink & Co. ... ... 1885-97

Its Present.

Dr. Boyes Smith remarked in his introduction to the opening number of the Indian Medical Gazette that "Periodical literature in India, whether scientific or not, is with the utmost

difficult}' maintained so as to entitle it to a high meed of praise." This dictum still holds true

of the present day periodical literature in India

generally, and of the Indian Medical Gazette in particular. The journal does not occupy the position it

should do, nor does it come up to the standard it ought to, were it more worthy of

' a high meed

of praise.' It is altogether too local, and might be more appropriately designated the Bengal Medical Journal, because it is not sufficiently representative of the sister Presidencies to

entitle it to the larger term of ' Indian.'

Neither does it fully represent any of the

groups of the medical profession in India, be

they official or non-official, Civil or Militaryt European or Indian. At present many medical men of standing, who are authorities on special subjects, either transmit the valuable results of their experience earned in India to medical

journals in Europe, or they keep their know- ledge to themselves. In both cases, their

action is quite consistent with their line of

argument, which is, that there is no medical

journal in India that comes up to the European standard.

Its Future.

With a view to rendering the Indian Medi- cal Gazette more representative of the medical profession in India and the East, the Publishers are prepared to secure the services of Associate Editors in important centres such as Madras and Bombay. In addition to doubling their expen- diture in this direction, the}' are also willing to make a substantial reduction in the annual sub-

scription,?from eighteen to twelve rupees. Each contributor of an original article, lecture or

clinical case, will receive twenty-five copies.

The future of the journal must depend largely on the support and assistance vouchsafed by the members of the Army, Indian, and Colonical Medical Services in India, Ceylon, the Straits.

Settlements and China.

In India the heads of departments in the

different presidencies and provinces could afford invaluable aid by their influence, and by for-

warding copies of their annual reports and other official memoranda for notice. The pro- fessors on the staffs of the Medical Colleges in the three Presidency cities, and at Lahore, are

in a position to contribute lectures and clinical

observations in their special subjects from the

immense amount of material at their command.

Civil Surgeons, with their enormously varied

experience, could supply data from their dispen- saries and jails, and from their medico-legal, sanitary, vaccination, and asylum work. The

members of the Army Medical Staff, and of the

Military Branch of the Indian Medical Service, have unrivalled opportunities for collective ob-

servations on large bodies of European and Native troops in camps and cantonments, and also for experience in military medicine, surgery and hygiene, while engaged in frontier expedi- tions. Last, but not least, every member of the services could help towards making the journal a bond of union by contributing matters of per- sonal, service, or general medical interest to the columns set aside for

' Service Notes and Medical

News.' At the same time it must be clearly understood that the Indian Medical Gazette

will not lend itself to the discussion of politics, or to the ventilation of personal grievances and

disputes, since its primary aim is a purely scientific one.

In addition to being a comprehensive and scientific record of the medical, surgical and sanitary work that is being carried on in the

East, the Indian Medical Gazette might be made a valuable repository for collective investigation and research, and ipso facto it would soon become known in Europe as a reliable authority on the diseases of warm climates. There is a wide range

of subjects to work at. For instance, in the pre- sent number of the journal, there are valuable contributions on the subjects of Elephantiasis, Yaws and Anthropology, in all of which

important results could be obtained by collective investigation.

Although special emphasis has been laid 011 the necessity for obtaining the co-operation of

Oct. 1897.] Dr. W. J. SIMPSON. '383

the Medical Services, yet there is 110 intention

'?f forgetting the valuable contributions of civil medical practitioners in the past, or of setting aside their services in the future. Dr. Powell's

important communication in this number of the journal contradicts any such erroneous assump- tion.

Though called the Indian Medical Gazette it was never intended that its utility should be restricted to India. With the help of the

members of the medical profession scattered

over the vast area included between Kashmir

in the North and Ceylon in the South, and from Aden in the West to Hong-Kong or Shanghai in the East, an incalculable amount of valuable

experience regarding climate and disease, much

of which at present sinks into oblivion, might be collected and recorded. Private practitioners in the towns and in the planting districts of

India and Ceylon, and medical missionaries who are located in India, Burma and China, could each and all help in establishing a mutual bond of professional sympathy. They could do much to facilitate communion and interchange of ideas between medical men, however distantly they may be removed from each other, by means of the Indian Medical Gazette.