From the works of Dr.Debasish Dutta.
Actually the confusion about the right nomenclature, existed since the very inception of the institute. In 1707 the first ever Hospital in Calcutta was established to provide modern medical care to the Europeans of the city in the old Fort area. It was known as Presidency Hospital as it was to serve the Europeans residing in Calcutta Presidency. It was a very small establishment. Later in 1768 a big land at Bhawanipore was purchased from Mr John Jachariah Kiernander where in 1770 a bigger Hospital started functioning in the name of Presidency General Hospital or precisely PG Hospital the name that exists till date. Again it was exclusively meant for the Europeans only. In 1794 the first ever ‘Native Hospital’ was built for common people by crowd funding. Till then there was no Medical Institute in the city to provide modern medical education and training. In 1822 during the reign of Lord Moyra was established the ‘School for Native Doctors’ which happened to be the first Medical Teaching Institute in India established by British Government. Dr James Jemison the then Secretary of Medical Board was appointed as the Superintendent of this Medical School. In October 1824 the name of this School was changed to Native Medical Institute or NMI in short which practically served as the building block of a full fledged Medical College to come into being in near future. Under the supervision of NMI Unani classes were organised at Calcutta Madrasa since 1827 and Ayurveda classes at Sanskrit College since December 1826. This initiative was taken to foster the indigenous systems of Medicine hugely prevalent in the city at that time. Since then the Government as well as educated socially conscious people of the city were thinking deeply about the need to establish a proper Medical Institute to teach Modern Medicine to meet the need of the time. Dr. John Tytler and Dr John Grant along with the the Gentlemen of Calcutta took immense initiative to convince the Government for the same. As a result on *28th of January 1835* according to GO Number 28 the Medical College started functioning in the house of Mr Ram Komal Sen (present coffee house). In March 1836 the College was shifted to it’s present location. Formally the classes started from 20th of February 1835. Unfortunately in the Government order no name for this College was mentioned and in Government expenditures it used to be referred as *’NewMedical College’* but Asiatic Society Journal mentioned it as either Calcutta Medical College or Medical College, Calcutta. In the certificate of successful students in 1837 it was mentioned as ‘ *Calcutta Medical College’* but it was for once only. In 1840 when the first batch completed the course the certificates bore the name as ‘ *Medical College of* *Bengal’* and the diploma provided was ‘Graduate of Medical College of Bengal’ or *GMCB* in short. It was recognised by University of London as equivalent to MB degree provided by LU. Practically this name persisted for long and in 1935 in the Centenary Commemorative Volume also was named as ‘The Centenary of Medical College Bengal’. In the year 1985 the Ter Centenary volume also had the name as ‘Medical College Bengal’ In umpteen number of Bengali stories, novels and movies we get this name only. We shouldn’t forget that this College was established 22 years before the establishment of Calcutta University and used to function as an autonomous institution. In1845 some changes in curriculum was incorporated as it was brought under the supervision of University of London. Then in 1857 when Cal University came into being the College was brought under the administrative control of the newly formed University and since then GMCB was replaced with MB.
In spite of extensive search in available literature in my small capacity I couldn’t point the the precise time frame when and how ‘Medical College Bengal’ was transformed to ‘Calcutta Medical College’. I feel both the names ran side by side and finally let us be happy as the alumni of *’MATIA’*
*LONG LIVE MATIA*
©️ Debasish Dutta