Page
October 2, 1895.
HONGKONG RIFLE ASSOCIATION. Twenty-three members turned up at the Butts on Saturday to compete for the Short Range Cup, which was won by Mr. R Rutter, the Spoons being taken by Lieut. Lee-Dillon, Captain Ferguson, Lieut. Close, Lieut. Hoey, and Captain Palmer. The following were the best scores;
R. Rutter
Lient. Lee-Dillon
200 300 Handi- To- yards. yards. cap. tal.
52227722
27 10 64 29
Captain Ferguson... 26
33
Lieut. Close
26
Lient, Hoby
32
27
Captain Palmer
31
25
W. Stewart...
20
30
Lieut. Percival
28
27
CORRESPONDENCE
[We do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions expressed by our Correspondents.]
THE MEDICAL SERVICE.
I was
253
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT. peal, the publication of such statements is Dr. Ayres has again dealt with the question considered as a violation of the recent Act of of nationality when dealing with the question Parliament. How much the more reason there of putting the Chinese graduates of the is therefore that statements made by officials as College of Medicine in charge of dispensaries to the official conduct and competency of a to be set up by Government Dr. Ayres in fellow official who, considering his certificate of support of his opinion that a Chinaman is not qualifications and his diplomas of medical de capable of being a doctor has cited the grees, is to all intents and purposes their con- case of the Bengalees, saying "I do not frère and on a level of equality, should, if ever think they (that is the Chinese) could be relied made, be made without circumvention and upon for surgical cases judging from my with all due precision and circumspection ? In experience of young Baboos in India." Dr. the statements made one seeks in vain for facts Ayres has been in the service of the colony and circumstances and one seeks in vain for any well nigh twenty-five years, Before that he accuracy and verification. In reply to the Pre- was in Bengal as Civil Surgeon of Malda. So sident's question "Do you consider Marques is his experience of
"young
Baboos" Was competent to take over the duties of medical acquired more than a quarter of a century officer of the Civil Hospital in the event of neces- before. But if he would have kept himself sity Dr. Ayres says "No, sir, certainly not." well informed about the advancement of medical It is to be regretted that after such an answer education in Bengal, fossilized as he has been the President should never have thought it his by a very long lease of official power in this duty to have followed up his inquiry by asking colony, he would not nave put forward such an the simple question-Wherefore not? and it is outworn view as he has done about the much more to be regretted that Dr. Ayres, him- Bengalees and he would not have exhibited self possessing no better diplomas of efficiency such stolid ignorance and such an than Dr. Marques, should simply sit upon him antiquated state of his information about them and should assume the role of a judge, and as he has done. During the last half century should seek to run down merely upon his own the advancement of the Bengalees in various ipse dixit a medical gentleman who has served intellectual spheres has been a phenomenal TO THE EDITOR OF THE "DAILY PRESS.
with and under him, if not for so many years as success, and there have been in India Bengalese SIR, The report of the Committee ap twenty-five years which Dr. Ayres puts forth doctors who have been, within the general pointed by H.E. the Governor to inquire into for his tenure of service, but for nothing less knowledge of those who have paid any attention the Medical Department and other matters than fifteen years, during which Dr. Marques to the subject, men with as high intellectual relative thereto would have proved a very valu- according to his evidence held the following attainments and with as high surgical ana able document for practical purposes had not appointments. Dr. Marques says "I was medical skill as any one could find in the its utility as to certain sections of it, especially originally appointed Acting Superintendent of ranks of the medical profession in England. as to the section dealing with the rearrange the Civil Hospital, then Assistant Superinten Even so far back as in Dr. Ayres's time when ment of duties of the members of the medical dent, and afterwards I was appointed Resident he was in Bengal medical education among staff, been marred by the unqualified acceptance Surgeon of the Lock Hospital. Then I was the Bengalees was in such a state of, advance- by the Committee of the evidence tendered on appointed Medical Officer of the Gaol.
ment that even then there were Indian doctors that subject as the keystone of its constration. appointed by Lord Derby in 1883 for the Lock in that Presidency of such high attainments The report, as based upon that evidence, bears Hospital and I was transferred in 1887 to the and of such superior qualifications as to be upon it so very much the impress of one-sided- Gaol. Dr. Ayres's answer to the President is entitled and selected to act as professors and ness that evidently public interests demand good enough for conveying the sting intended, teachers in the higher branches of medical that the evidence which has led to the construc- but, taken by itself, it is disingenuous enough education, and at whose feet some of the medical tion of such a report should be thoroughly for revealing and exhibiting the main momen in this colony might well have sat as their analyzed and sifted independently of the means, that guided him, and the main motive, if not disciples to their intellectual enhancement and if any, adopted for the purpose by the Com- found in the answer itself, is to be found in an ultimate benefit. Some of these doctors had mittee, to test the accuracy of the conclusions unmistakable manner in his previous statements. acquired such reputation for proficiency that as arrived at. The part of the report dealing with Dr. Ayres seems from those statements evident-medical men it was said if them at that time the work required of the medical staff and its ly to have certain prepossessions as regards that they were not made but born doctors. I future redistribution is principally, and neces- nationalities, and those prepossessions find a would cite only one instance. The name sarily, based upon the evidence given by the reflex not only in those statements, but they also chief medical officers of the Government Civil find a reflex in another section of his answers to
of Dr. Kanaya Lall Dey has almost been a household word Hospital, but it is a question whether the evi-
in Bengal theast the Committee. Dr. Ayres says " Dr. Marques quarter of a century, and those who have dence of these officers, as given, should be was appointed in 1880
The public any acquaintance with Dr. Norman Chevers's' accepted as to the qualifications of a professional mortuary was opened and as Dr. Wharry wanted standard work on medical jurisprudence in man and fellow official, but since it has been ac- to get rid of the post mortem examina- India would at once recognize that, if a cepted in toto, and accepted, as apparent from tions which involved a lot of work, and Bengalee doctor could contribute a large num- the evidence, on very slender grounds and in- a lot of Court work, it was decided to ber of chapters to such a standard work, his adequate or no inquiry, letting aside the minor put Dr. Marques in charge of it and the attainments must necessarily be of a very high and the sentimental question of the etiquette Lock Hospital. Then when the C. D. Ordinance order. Dr. Dey contributed a number of of the profession, public interests demand, was abolished the women, who had arrived at a chapters to that work and the author has in fairness and justice to the officer con- knowledge of the benefit they derived from being acknowledged his valuable aid in such a manner cerned, as also to the department of examined, applied to the Registrar-General to as to leave no room for any such absurd state- which he is the Medical Officer, that have the examination continued but as it was ment as that the Bengalees in the early stage of either the statements made in the evidence a voluntary niatter they refused to be examined medical education were not capable of becom- should be verified in all honesty of purpose by by Dr. Marques. So he was removed to take ing good doctors. It is not to be disputed for citations of instances and occasions when in- charge of the Gaol.' Evidently the women a moment that medical and surgical education competency on the part of the official concerned refused to be examined by Dr. Marques because was relatively not in a very advanced state of was evidenced, or that, on the other hand, if the the question of his nationality affected, so to progress in India about a quarter of a century statements simply partake of the nature of speak, their fine and delicate feelings, and Dr. before. It was certainly much behind the aspersions, they should not be allowed to go un-Ayres seeing his prepossessions as to the question present state of advancement. But what was challenged to the prejudice of-for aught one
the state of progress made in medicine and may know to the contrary from the report
surgery even in England then? Sir J. Russell quite a competent medical man in the colony.
Reynolds, the President of the British Medical The statements, as they are to be found in the
Association for the current year, at the opening evidence, are neither supported by facts and
of its annual meeting in July last, taking the figures nor justified by any scrap or shadow of
meeting of 1873 as the starting point of a his- substantiation. They are statements made by
torical review of progress in medicine and Drs. Ayres, Atkinson, and Lowson upon their
surgery, observed that even the dauntless own ipse dixit against the Medical Officer of
courage of Sir William Fergusson would not the Gaol, and it is passing strange that such
have sufficed for the undertaking of operations bare and unsupported statements should ever
which are now tranquilly performed by much have been allowed by the Committee reporting
less highly gifted surgeons. In the same way to the Government as the ground work and the
the distinguished physician who in 1873 delivered basis of what might have proved on the whole a
the address in medicine had never dreamed in his very important report, affecting, as it does, the
most sanguine moods of the development now best interests of the public as affecting the
familiar to all ranks of the profession." health and sanitation of this colony. In Eng-
It is a pity that Surgeon-Colonel Preston, a land the Corrupt Practices Act has recently
member of the Committee, has, as coming com- been introduced for checking statements pub
paratively recently from India, accepted such a lished for the purpose of injuring an opponent
threadbare banality as Dr. Ayres has delivered in Parliamentary elections. If any statements
himself of about the Bengalees with such an are made or published to the constituency
assured belief in its originality and such a as to any candidate's personal character or
child-like delight in his own cleverness. If Dr. conduct, and if those statements are on ex-
Ayres's other statements about cognate subjects amination found false in the Court of Ap-crustes,
are on a par with the opinion that he has given,
of nationality coinciding with those of the women set aside the needs and exigencies of the service and taking the opportunity of Dr. Marques's nationality stinking in the nostrils of the romen had him shifted from the Civil Hospital to the Gaol. Dr. Ay further says
That none of the Europeans will have any. thing to do with him; they come at once to me. He is not liked." Again he says- "You see he is a Portuguese and the Europeans in the service do not like him and make complaints. It caused a good deal of trouble in the Hospital." Dr. Ayres is pretty plain there, and it very plainly comes out that Dr. Marques's nationality has a great deal to answer for Dr. Ayres's opinion as given to the Committee. At one time it is the women under examination in the Lock Hospital whose views are truckled to, at another time it is the Europeans in the service. who should be most thought of, and whatever may be the merits of an unobtrusive Portuguese doctor who up to recently has borne the white flower of a blameless official career, it is he and he alone who should be laid on the bed of Pro