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



327 



the systematic teaching of the science of medicine under Staff 

 Assistant Surgeons Templeton and Cameron, under the 

 supervision of Dr. Arthur Stewart. The lectures delivered 

 were mere explanations of the contents of text-books. This 

 plan of educating medical officers was but partially suc- 

 cessful. 



The clinical teaching at the Military Hospital, Colombo, not 

 being found to answer as fully as desired, the Government 

 determined to send students to Calcutta for their medical 

 education. It was not until the beginning of 1843 that 

 graduates of the Bengal College joined this service, and 

 among them may be specially mentioned the names of 

 Drs. Anthonisz, Loos, Dickman, Kriekenbeek, Ondatjee, 

 Andree, Wambeck, Markus, Margenout, and Breechman, who 

 have all, either by death or retirement, now severed their 

 connection with a department they served honourably and 

 usefully, the first two having had the distinguished 

 privilege, upon more than one occasion, of administering the 

 Medical Department, during the temporary absence of its 

 head from the Island. Speaking of his predecessors, Dr. 

 Koch, himself a graduate of Calcutta, says in his lecture : 

 " Nothing conduced more to familiarise English practice 

 amongst the natives of the Island than the services of these 

 young men on their return. They undertook and performed 

 with success the most formidable surgical operations, and the 

 name of Dr. Anthonisz will always be connected with the 

 first successful cases of sesophagotomy and ovariotomy in 

 Ceylon. Indeed, if I am not mistaken, the first-mentioned 

 operation was the first successful one of its kind ever recorded 

 in the whole annals of British surgery." 



Dr. Ondaatje was Acting Superintendent of the Royal 

 Botanical Gardens at Peradeniya in 1843-44, before the 

 appointment of Dr. Gardener, and he has since given proof 

 of his intimate knowledge of the productions of the country, 

 and their economic uses, in his contributions to the Journal of 

 the Asiatic and other societies. 



