No. 32 1886.] MEDICAL HISTORY OF CEYLON. 325 



1839, was further marked in medical annals by the first 

 mention in His Excellency's speech to Council of a Medical 

 School for Ceylon, and of certain measures to be adopted by 

 Government, which afterwards contributed in a very great 

 measure to the efficiency of the Civil Medical Department. 



His Excellency then said : — " The evident inadequacy 

 of the former rates of salaries, to ensure the services of per- 

 sons duly qualified in point of professional attainments and 

 general respectability, left no doubt in my mind of the 

 necessity of increasing the remuneration of the native medi- 

 cal establishment ; and while a higher scale of salaries was 

 introduced, steps were taken to ensure to the junior members 

 a regular course of instruction, both by the Military Medical 

 Officers serving in the Colony and at the Colombo Academy. 

 I also took advantage of the means of education Calcutta 

 afforded to medical students, by sending certain more 

 advanced youths to be educated there at the expense of this 

 Government, with a view to employment in the Colony on 

 their return. The Home Government has directed me to 

 submit to you these arrangements, involving as they do an 

 annual expenditure of about £3,500. It is for you, gentlemen, 

 to declare whether this Colony does not stand in need of an 

 efficient class of medical practitioners." His Excellency, 

 in alluding to the necessity of a School of Medicine, added 

 that he hoped the time was not far distant, when he should 

 be able to propose to his Council, in furtherance of his views 

 for the improvement of the class of medical men in the 

 Department, the establishment of an Anatomical School ; and 

 it was even suggested that certain alterations might be 

 effected in the late Pettah Hospital (at present the head- 

 quarters of the Ceylon Light-Infantry Volunteers) for this 

 purpose ; or failing this, that Her Majesty's Government 

 would sanction " there being attached to the Colombo 

 Academy such a system of medical education as will provide 

 the means of adequate instruction in the medical profession 

 in future for the Colonists, without their leaving their native 



