III
W. ADAM ON STATE OF NATIVE MEDICAL PRACTICE
(pp.195-200)The state of Native Medical Practice in the (Rajshahy) district is
so intimately connected with the welfare of the people that it
could not be wholly overlooked; and as the few facts that I have
collected tend additionally to illustrate their character and
condition, it would be improper to omit them. They are
submitted with deference to those who may have made
professional inquiries, and can form a professional judgment on
the subject.
The number of those, who may be called general
practitioners and who rank highest in the native medical
profession in Nattore is 123, of whom 89 are Hindus and 34 are
Mahomedans. The Medical School at Vaidya Belghariya
possesses considerable interest, since it is, as far as I can
ascertain, the only institution of the kind in the district, and the
number of such institutions throughout Bengal is, I believe, very
limited. The two medical teachers of this school are employed as
domestic physicians by two wealthy families, and they have each
also a respectable general practice. As a domestic physician, the
junior teacher has a fixed salary of twenty-five rupees a month;
while the senior teacher in the same capacity has only fifteen
rupees a month, and that only as long his attendance may be
required during periods of sickness in the family that employs
him. I have spoken of that family as wealthy, but it is only
comparatively so being in very reduced circumstances; and to
that cause rather than to the low estimation in which the
physician is held, we must ascribe the scant remuneration he
receives. At another place, Hajra Nattore, No.26, there are three
educated Hindu practitioners, all three Brahmans and brothers
and more or less acquainted with Sanscrit, having acquired the
grammar of the language at Bejpara Amhatti, and subsequently
applied their knowledge of it to the study of the medical works in
that language. The eldest has practised since he was eighteen,
and he is now sixty-two years of age, and employs his leisure in
instructing his two nephews. On an average of the year he
estimates the income derived from his practice at five rupees a
month, while one of his brothers who is in less repute estimates
his own income at three rupees. At a third place, Haridev
Khalasi, No.100, there are four educated Hindu practitioners,
three of whom appeared to be in