Editorial


Under the circumstances, a ten-years-practice should be the minimum length of time for a practising homoeopathist to be entitled to registration, and his application should be supported by Municipal Professional tax bill, or a certificate from the chairman of the municipality within the jurisdiction of which he has been practising, or from the chairman of the Local Board, or from any Sub-Divisional officer, testifying the bonafide practice of the applicant.


FACULTY IN THE MAKING.

The noiseless foot of time ceaselessly trots along its endless course. Six long weeks have quietly passed since the Honble Minister of Public Health graciously announced on the floors of the Bengal Legislative Assembly that the Homoeopathic Medical Faculty was going to be established within a few weeks. The promised Faculty has not come within sight yet. But one must not despair.

A few weeks is only an indefinitely tiny fragment of limitless time, and one must not try to be mathematically accurate as to the hours and minutes forming a week. The Faculty is to be a thing of creation out of nothing, and the time of any creator shall not be counted in terms of a Geneva watch. Read in the Geeta:.

One day of Brahma-the Creator of the Universe-consists of 432 crores of terrestrial years. One years of man is equivalent to one day of the dwellers: of Paradise. Time is indeed the biggest mystery.

Then again, the Homoeopathic Medical Faculty will be of necessity a synthesis of various things, subtle and crude-and consequently demands, great care to adjust everything harmoniously.

Firstly, who will be entitled to registration? This is equally a knotty and a naughty question. Opinions differ very widely on this first question. If the past activities of all the Homoeopathic Colleges be relegated to oblivion and registration be available on the length of practice alone, that would create a chaos and a hideous iniquity.

Colleges with a four-years-course of study and compulsory dissections, should have immediate preference and recognition entitling them to present their passed students to the Faculty for registration. In other words, these old graduates of the colleges coming within the aforesaid category should be registered through their respective colleges for the purpose of getting their degrees and applications countersigned by the Principal, thus checking malpractices.

Secondly, we 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. But, when making an attempt at pearl-fishing, one had to suffer pulling a stock of sea weeds along with mother-of-pearl.

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

Thirdly, the minimum qualification of the new entrants to recognized Homoeopathic Colleges has to be determined. Matriculation of the Calcutta University, or its equivalent, will be unanimously agreed to; but we should strongly recommend that the entrants should pass the Matriculation with the three science subjects, viz., (a) Elements of Physics and Chemistry, (b) Elements of Biology, and (c) Elementary Hygiene, as prescribed in the Syllabus taking effect from the Matriculation Examination of 1941. Without the combination of these science subjects in his matriculation the applicant shall not be admitted to any Homoeopathic College.

Frothily, the Syllabus of all colleges should be uniform and not below that at present prescribed for the State Medical FAculty of Bengal, with the substitution of the study of the Homoeopathic Materia Medica and Organon, and subject to quinquennial revision. Speculative and spectacular subjects that are of no utility in actual practice and which at present form a dead weight on the breast of the students of allopathy, should be excluded. Proving of indigenous drugs and re-proving of the old drugs of the Homoeopathic Materia Medica should be given special importance.

Fifthly, the first General Council for initiating and implementing the Faculty should dissolve after one year when there should be a general election, and the newly elected body should function for three years and retire. Subsequent Councils should likewise hold office for three years. The retiring members should be eligible to re-election.

Sixthly, the General Council should, as soon as possible after formation, frame rules and regulations in regard to the conduct and misconduct, practice and malpractice, medical ethics, etc., for the guidance of the registered medical practitioners.

Seventhly, the preliminary period for registration should be three years from the date on which the establishment of the Faculty be gazetted.

Thus, the task before the Faculty is not an easy one. The first General Council should therefore prodigious labour and at the same time unwrapped of allopathic inclinations. We feel sure the Honble Minister is fully conscious of these necessaries.

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