The Place of Psychiatry in the Medical Colleges and Schools in India

To the Editor, The Indian Medical Gazette Sir,?I have read with interest Colonel Berkeley-Hill's article in the October (1932) issue of the Indian Medical Gazette entitled ' The Place of Psychiatry in the Medical Colleges and Schools in IndiaWith reference to his lines advocating the offering of facilities to students of medicine for the study of the actual cases of mental disorder (vide p. 583, para 2, lines 49 et infra), I beg to draw his attention to the following incident. On the 24th October 1931, I, then a house physician at the Medical College Hospital, Calcutta, visited the mental hospitals at Kanke together with two other friends, both graduates of medicine. We were refused admission to the hospitals, even on pointing out to the junior offcers at the gate that we intended to see the patients from a scientific point of view, not as lay sightseers. We begged for guidance from the management specially regarding the classification of patients and the line of treatment adopted. In return we were asked to make a generous contribution to the poor box,