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 sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

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

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

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

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

. 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 Univ ...

. 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, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies 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) w ...

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

Manipay Manipay or Maanippaai () is a 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 Sri Lanka in the 19th century. Dr. Samuel Fisk ...

, northern Ceylon. The establishment of a medical school in Ceylon was advocated by Governor George William Anderson 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 ulc ...

disease in the 1860s, leading to a massive depopulation in the Vanni. In 1867 governor Hercules Robinson 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. 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 ttps://med.cmb.ac.lk Faculty of Medicine - University of Colombo Official Website Established in 1870 as the Colombo Medical School, the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Colombo, is the second oldest medical school in South Asia. It is c ...

, 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 "" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as part ...

Charles Henry de Soysa Charles Henry de Soysa Dharmagunawardana Vipula Jayasuriya Karunaratna Disanayaka popularly known as Charles Henry de Soysa, JP (3 March 1836 – 29 September 1890) was a Ceylonese entrepreneur and philanthropist. He was a pioneering planter, i ...

. 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 Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

, the

pathology Pathology is the study of disease. 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 the context of modern medical treatme ...

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. Laboratories are found in a variety of settings such as schools ...

. 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 physician, medical practitioners within the United Kingdom. Its chief responsibility is to "protect, promote and maintain the health and safety of the pu ...

at a meeting of the Privy Council 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 in the style ...

. 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 comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

. 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 Universities and colleges established in 1870 Educational institutions disestablished in 1942 Medical schools in Sri Lanka