Calendar: 1856-1857 Page 196

196 MEDICAL DEPARTMENT the orders of the Court of Directors within three months from the date of their appointments will be considered as having forfeited them unless special circumstances shall justify departure from this regulation copy of these Regulations and any further information may be obtained on application to the Secretary of the Military Department East India House The Examinations will take place in the months of January and July in each year and due notice will he given by public advertisement of the days appointed and of the probable number of Candidates to be selected The Board oe Examiners for Assistant Surgeons in the Honourable East India Company's Service having received many inquiries as to the object and extent of the Examination in Comparative Anatomy Zoology and Botany have considered it desirable to announce that its objects are To ascertain who of the Candidates have devoted especial attention to any of these sciences and are hence qualified to undertake duties requiring knowledge of them as well as the general duties of their profession Pro- ficiency in these sciences will in classifying the Candidates by merit be entitled to great consideration To encourage all Candidates to acquire an elementary knowledge of the structure and affinities of the principal natural families of Animals and of Plants with the general plan upon which these are constructed and the func- tions and relations of their most important organs To promote the study of Natural History as most important adjunct or preliminary to liberal medical education that of Comparative Anatomy Zoology or Botany if properly cultivated by means of specimens for even short period being eminently calculated to develop habits of close observa- tion and to strengthen those powers of reasoning upon observed facts which must be habitually exercised by medical men everywhere but which must be exercised with the greatest energy and promptitude by those who practise in tropical climate and who are often thrown wholly upon their own resources The general examination in these sciences will be elementary and will embrace very limited range of technical terms At the written examination considerable number of questions will be put with the view of allowing eacli Candidate to select snch subjects as he has attended to and thereby of enabling the Examiners to ascertain the particular departments of science in which the verbal examination should be conducted With those Candidates who have attained proficiency in any branch of these sciences the verbal examination will be pursued in the branch selected so as to ascertain the full extent of their knowledge