Editorial


The Poet Laureate had a predilection for Homoeopathic and Biochemic Medicine. His Sriniketan always had a good supply of these medicines for his personal use as well as for the treatment of the poor villagers who used to flock to him whenever they were sick. It was one of his fond desires to found a Chair for Homoeopathy at his Visva Bharati, but unfortunately for us he passed away before it could be fulfilled.


Editorial

RABINDRA NATH.

The nation is deprived of the nations Gurudev! India and the world mourn today and will mourn for ever. Words acknowledge defeat in expressing grief over the withdrawal of THIS OMNIPOTENT CREATOR OF THOUGHTS. Language in mute at the disappearance of THIS MOULDER OF LANGUAGES.

The nations heart is hushed being deserted by ITS PRECIOUS DARLING DEITY who was enthroned there and worshipped with the nations entire love and reverence. The nations mind goes bleak and blank for the absence of THE WORLDS MASTER-MIND and INDIANS UNIQUE PSYCHAL REFORMER. He was seated at such reeling eminence that the most daring presumption must fail to give a faint outline of him.

A class by himself, born and brought up within a zealously guarded citadel of caste and class he demolished the airtight compartments of aristocracy and landlordism and deluged mankind with the tidal flood of his affection and sympathy for the poor, the ignorant, the unenlightened, the neglected, the execrated; the enormous tide inundating the hamlets and villages of even the Bhils and Sonthals with the bliss and brightness of health, knowledge, nourishment and culture. He was divinely anointed to befriend the oppressed and chide the oppressor.

The Poet Laureate had a predilection for Homoeopathic and Biochemic Medicine. His Sriniketan always had a good supply of these medicines for his personal use as well as for the treatment of the poor villagers who used to flock to him whenever they were sick. It was one of his fond desires to found a Chair for Homoeopathy at his Visva Bharati, but unfortunately for us he passed away before it could be fulfilled.

He left an inestimable legacy of all that is holy, righteous and beneficent, and our only solace will be in dedicating ourselves to the preservation of his gifts. May his soul sustain us to emulate his works and offer hourly homage to his sacred memory.

THE GENERAL COUNCIL.

The Honorable Minister, Medical and Public Health Department, Bengal will have within a few days completed his arduous duty of forming the General Council, and then this statutory body will forthwith proceed framing Rules and Regulations for the working of the State Faculty of Homoeopathic Medicine.

While considering the question of granting affiliation to the teaching institutions, the General Council will surely want certain conditions being fulfilled by the Schools and Colleges applying for affiliation. In prescribing syllabus of study, the General Council will keep in view the opinion expressed by the Honorable The Director General of Indian Medical Service at the Conference on Medical School Education held in Delhi. He remarked: “I think the case for improving the entrance examination is very strong.

It avoids disappointment and loss of time and money to both the prospective student and his parents if he is checked at the outset from attempting a career for which he is inadequately fitted.” At the same Conference resolution was passed recommending improvements in the general preliminary education qualifying for admission to medical schools.

We should strongly recommend that the entrants to Homoeopathic teaching institutions should pass the Matriculation of the Calcutta University (or its equivalent) with three science subjects as prescribed in the syllabus taking effect from the Matriculation Examination of 1941, viz., (a) Elements of Physics and Chemistry, (b) Elements of Biology, and (c) Elementary Hygiene. That the General Council will not permit admission of non-matriculates in its affiliated teaching institutions, is obvious to the man in the street.

To protect Homoeopathy from the activities of Diploma hawkers it is necessary that the General Council should adopt measures simulating the provisions of the Bombay Medical Practitioners Act of 1939, which provides that no person or body or institution other than the authorities of any Statutory Medical Faculty shall confer, grant, or issue, or hold himself out as entitled to confer, grant or issue any degree, diploma or licence which is identical with or is colourable imitation of any degree, diploma or licence granted by a legally authorised body or institution; any infringement of this provision is punishable with a fine of Rupees one thousand.

The General Council may emphatically request the Government of Bengal to rigorously enforce the Indian Medical Degrees Act, 1916, in this province. Elimination of uneducated and half-educated quacks of all systems of medicine may be effected only by such measures.

In the matter of registration, the General Council will face two classes of applicants, viz., (a) those who had received their medical education from one of the recognized schools and colleges, and (b) those who have been only adventitious practitioners without an academic training. In the case of the former no difficulty should arise if their applications were countersigned by the Principal, with a view to check malpractices of false of false personification.

In the case of the latter, the General Council would face the problem of registration based upon the length of practice, without considering the question of general education and training in the science and art of Homoeopathy. This is something like firing blunderbuss.

Under the circumstances, ten-years practice should be the minimum length of time for a practising homoeopathist for being entitled to registration and his application should be supported by the Professional tax bill of the Municipality within the jurisdiction of which he has been practising, or a certificate from the chairman of the Local Board or Union Board or from any Sub-Divisional Officer, testifying the bonafide practice of the applicant covering the required period. Anything less than a ten-years practice will be dangerous, if not homicidal, to be recognized for purposes of registration of a non-institutional practitioner.

The General Council will, as soon as registration commences, frame rules and regulations in regard to the conduct and misconduct, practice and malpractice, medical ethics, etc., for the guidance of the registered practitioners. In the Homoeopathic Herald, vol. II., pp. 265-273, we presented to our readers Code of Medical Ethics of the American Institute of Homoeopathy, and we trust a reference to same will be labour- saving.

N C Bose
DR. N. C. Bose, M.D.C.H
Calcutta
Chief Editor, Homeopathic Herald