calcutta medical college

During 1803, at height of its rule in India, the British India Company (East India Company) had a private army of 260000, twice the size of British Army. Plenty of soldiers used to die, mainly from diarrheal diseases, malaria and kala azar. The only available treatment at that time was traditional Indian medicine. It was not possible to treat this vast number of soldiers with very limited European doctors. Necessity of imparting training to the native people in modern medicine was badly felt.