Ceylon Medical College was a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

medical school A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, or part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, M ...

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. The college was established in 1870 as the Colombo Medical School. The college was based in

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

. The college was merged with

Ceylon University College Ceylon University College was a public university college in Ceylon. Established in 1921, it was Ceylon's first attempt at university education. The college didn't award degrees under its own name but prepared students to sit the University of Lo ...

in 1942 to form the

University of Ceylon The University of Ceylon was the only university in Sri Lanka (earlier Ceylon) from 1942 until 1972. It had several constituent campuses at various locations around Sri Lanka. The University of Ceylon Act No. 1 of 1972, replaced it with the Univer ...

. The medical college became the university's faculty of medicine. The college was also known as Colombo Medical College.

History

The Bengal Medical College was established in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

in 1835. In 1839 Stewart-Mackenzie, the British Governor of

, started sending a small number of Ceylonese to study medicine in Calcutta. In 1847

Samuel Fisk Green Samuel Fisk Green (1822–1884) was an American medical missionary. He graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York city. He served with the American Ceylon Mission (ACM) in Jaffna, Sri Lanka during the period (1847–1873) ...

, an American medical missionary, started a private medical school in

Manipay Manipay or Maanippaai ( ta, மானிப்பாய்) is an affluent town in the northern Jaffna District of Sri Lanka. The original name of Manipay is Periyapulam. It was a mission location when the American Ceylon Mission (ACM) came to ...

, northern Ceylon. The establishment of a medical school in Ceylon was advocated by Governor

George William Anderson George William Anderson (1791 – 12 March 1857) was the officiating governor of Bombay during the British Raj from 28 April 1841 to 9 June 1842. Anderson entered the Bombay Civil Service in 1806. He was responsible for drawing up the Bombay Ci ...

in 1852. The island was hit by the

yaws Yaws is a tropical infection of the skin, bones, and joints caused by the spirochete bacterium ''Treponema pallidum pertenue''. The disease begins with a round, hard swelling of the skin, in diameter. The center may break open and form an ulce ...

disease in the 1860s, leading to a massive depopulation in the Vanni. In 1867 governor

Hercules Robinson Hercules George Robert Robinson, 1st Baron Rosmead, (19 December 1824 – 28 October 1897), was a British colonial administrator who became the 5th Governor of Hong Kong and subsequently, the 14th Governor of New South Wales, the first Gove ...

appointed James Loos, the colonial surgeon for the Northern Province, to investigate the depopulation. Amongst Loos' recommendations was that there should be a plan for medical education in the country. The Colombo Medical School was opened on 1 June 1870 by Governor Robinson. The school was based in the female surgical ward of the then General Hospital in

. The school was controlled by the government's Principal Civil Medical Officer. The school's courses lasted five years after which students sat examinations and if they passed they received a diploma of Licentiate of Medicine and Surgery (LMS). This allowed them to practice medicine and surgery. The school had lecture rooms, laboratories, dissecting rooms and two libraries. Physics and chemistry was taught at

Ceylon Technical College Maradana College of Technology is the oldest technical college in Sri Lanka. Formally known as the Ceylon Technical College which was an institution of higher education for Technical and Scientific fields in Ceylon and a government department. It ...

. The first batch consisted of 25 students (all male). James Loos was the school's first principal. The school benefited from large endowments, including land and buildings, provided by locals. In 1875 Mudaliyar Samson Rajapakse gifted three and a half acres of land on which the school's successor, the

Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo Established in 1870 as the Colombo Medical School, the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, is the second oldest medical school in South Asia.It is considered to be the top most medical faculty in the country which requir ...

, stands today. The De Soysa Hospital/Lying-in-Home and the biology building was given to the school by

Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

Charles Henry de Soysa Charles Henry de Soysa Dharmagunawardana Vipula Jayasuriya Karunaratna Disanayaka popularly known as Charles Henry de Soysa, Justice of the peace#Sri Lanka, JP (3 March 1836 – 29 September 1890) was a Demographics of Sri Lanka, Ceylonese entrepr ...

. In the same year his uncle Mudaliyar Susew de Soysa donated the school buildings which housed the colonial medical

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

, the

pathology Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in ...

museum and the biological

laboratory A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratory services are provided in a variety of settings: physicia ...

. His son Mudaliyar J. W. C. de Soysa provided the funds to build the bacteriological institute in 1899. Other benefactors included Muhandiram A. Simon Fernando Wijegooneratne and Vimala Gunawardane. The school's course length was extended to four years in 1873. Loos left the school in 1875 after being appointed colonial surgeon for the Central Province. He was replaced by Edwin Lawson Koch. In 1876 the government started providing scholarships which provided free education at the school and post-graduate studies in Britain. Koch died in 1877 and was replaced by Julian Louis Vanderstraatcn. The school was renamed Ceylon Medical College in 1880. The college's course length was extended to five years in 1884. On 29 December 1887 the school's LMS diploma was recognised by the

General Medical Council The General Medical Council (GMC) is a public body that maintains the official register of medical practitioners within the United Kingdom. Its chief responsibility is to "protect, promote and maintain the health and safety of the public" by c ...

at a meeting of the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

held at

Osborne House Osborne House is a former royal residence in East Cowes, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom. The house was built between 1845 and 1851 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as a summer home and rural retreat. Albert designed the house himself, in t ...

. This recognition meant that holders of the Colombo LMS were registered medical practitioners under the Medical Act 1886 and could practice anywhere in the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

. They could also pursue post-graduate studies in Britain without needing to re-take any undergraduate courses. The college started admitting female students in 1892. Allan Perry took over from Vanderstraatcn in 1898. In 1905 two ordinances were passed relating to the college. The Council of the Ceylon Medical College was incorporated by Ordinance No. 3 1905. Ordinance No. 5 1905 (Medical Registration Ordinance) allowed the Council of the Ceylon Medical College to register individuals (including holders of the Colombo LMS) allowed to practice medicine and surgery in Ceylon. The ''Ceylon University Ordinance No. 20 of 1942'' established the

on 1 July 1942 by amalgamating Ceylon Medical College with

. The medical college became the new university's faculty of medicine.

Principals

References

{{Authority control 1870 establishments in Ceylon Defunct universities and colleges in Sri Lanka Educational institutions established in 1870 Educational institutions disestablished in 1942 Medical schools in Sri Lanka