Science and Modern India

CHAPTER 17

A History of the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital, 1835–1936

Samita Sen and Anirban Das

The establishment of the Medical College in 1835 at College Street, Calcutta, was one of the most significant steps in the introduction of scientific education into the Indian subcontinent by the Europeans. Rigorous courses of training in anatomy, physiology, morbid anatomy and pathology were introduced for the first time into the practice of medicine in India.

Doctors and teachers trained at this institution were instrumental in the spread of Western scientific medical education and training, not just in the Indian subcontinent but also overseas—in the British dominions and colonial territories in Africa and the West Indies. Medical scientists ...