HOW THE FIRST BRITISH MODERN MEDICAL TRAINING INSTITUTE NATIVE MEDICAL INSTITUTION (NMI) BEGAN TO START FUNCTIONING

[Modified version of this paper has been included in my book The Calcutta Medical College, 1822-1897: Medicine, Social Psyche and the Making of Modern Citizenry (Primus, 2025)] On the 9th May 1822, the Medical Board of Bengal Province communicated to the Government a memorandum, pointing out the want of native doctors for the supply of the various establishments connected with the civil and military branches of the service, and suggesting the establishment of a school for native doctors, to be maintained at the expense of the Government, as the only means by which the deficiency could be supplied. Government highly approved of the suggestion, and called upon the Medical Board to submit more detailed arrangements of their plan, in the form of a regulation for the proposed institution. Accordingly on the 30th of May, the Board submitted their plan of a school for native doctors, which meeting with the approbation of the Government, a general order was issued on the 21st of June 1822, establishing the school on the proposed plan. It has been shown that from October 3, 1823, the teaching and other academic activities of the School really started.