<P> The year 1836 was a landmark in the history of the growth of western medicine in British India since it witnessed the first dissection of a human corpse by Indian students . Madhusudan Gupta is often given the credit of being the first person in modern India to have dissected a human body . But many accounts state that Umacharan Set, Rajkrishna De, Dwarakanath Gupta and Nabin Chandra Mitra comprised the first batch of students to take part in dissection . They passed the first examination held on 30 October 1838 and were declared fit to practise medicine and surgery . They consequently represented the first group of Indians qualified in western medicine and given government appointments as Sub-Assistant Surgeons to the hospitals at Dhaka, Murshidabad, Patna and Chittagong . </P> <P> Many luminaries of Calcutta including Dwarkanath Tagore and Ram Comul Sen enthusiastically supported medical education at the CMC by instituting scholarships and prizes for brilliant students . Four students of the College were sent to England through the financial help of Dwarakanath Tagore, Professor Goodeve and partly of the government . Three of them, including Dwaraka Nath Bose, Bhola Nath Bose, and Gopal Chunder Seal passed the examination for MRCS (Member of the Royal College of Surgeons) in 1846 and returned to India to join the uncovenanted Medical Service . Soorjo Coomar Goodeve Chuckerbutty remained there, obtained the MD degree of the University College of London and became the first Indian to pass the examination for the Indian Medical Service and join the covenanted Medical Service . He also became a distinguished professor of the Medical College holding the Chair of Materia Medica from 1864 till his death in 1874 . </P> <P> In 1842, a Council of Education, which introduced many changes in the curriculum and system of examinations, replaced the Committee of Public Instruction . The new courses of study, based on the advice of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, were introduced in 1844, and were ultimately recognised by them, by the London University and the Society of Apothecaries in 1846 . After the foundation of the University of Calcutta in 1857 and its faculty of medicine for the award of medical degrees, the courses of study were revised to a certain extent . The University conferred three medical degrees, Licentiate in Medicine and Surgery (LMS), Bachelor in Medicine (MB), and Doctor of Medicine (MD). The first Muslim medical graduate of this college was Raheem Khan in 1856 . </P> <P> Other changes brought about in the College aimed at fulfilling the needs of the state to supply an increased number of medical personnel for employment in the army and for combating epidemic diseases among the civilians . The government order of August 1839 instituted medical classes through the medium of Urdu and Hindustani . Lessons were imparted in Anatomy, Materia Medica, Medicine and Surgery . Dissections and teaching methods followed western principles . Fifty students were selected initially . They received a monthly allowance of Rs 5 each and had to undergo clinical training by discharging hospital duties at the Medical College Hospital, founded in 1838 . In 1838, a large female (lying in) hospital started functioning under the benevolence of Mutty Lal Seal . This was followed by the opening of a large hospital in 1853, designed to accommodate 350 patients . Other hospitals were: the Eden Hospital (1881--82), the Ezra Hospital (1887), the Shama Charan Laha Eye Hospital (1891) and the Prince of Wales Surgical Block, opened in March 1911 . Before 1857 the number of students taking admission in the Maternity class fluctuated between 28 and 69 . After 1857 the number increased slowly . At the end of their period of study the students were examined in anatomy, materia medica, surgery and medicine for the diploma of Native Doctor . </P>

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