[103] These important inscriptions are explained and described in the Selections from the Records of the Madras Government, Report on the Elliot Marbles (p. 191) by R. W. Taylor, Madras, 1857.
Most astonishing and gratifying is the immense number of casual visitors that frequent this institution for advancing education. The book for inscribing names lying in the Museum, showed for a single month no less than 36,522 visitors, mostly natives, and this it seems has been about the average number since the foundation of the Museum. There is also a small, valuable library, which, by means of purchases, gifts, and exchanges, is being visibly added to with each year, and is accessible to visitors of all classes, the custodian and inspectors being all natives.
The Madras Literary Society, an offshoot of the Royal Asiatic Society in London, and now reckoning but a small number of associates, publishes from time to time the most valuable information as to the latest achievements of science in India, and serves in a measure as a medium by which to compare the intellectual progress of Asia and Europe. To the members of this society the naturalists of the Novara Expedition are specially beholden for their great attention during their stay in Madras, as also for their hearty participation in the objects of the Imperial Expedition as evidenced by their sending copies of their own various and useful publications.
There are in Madras numerous institutes devoted to the diffusion of useful knowledge among the masses, part founded and maintained by Government, part by private enterprise, and this liberality is the more praiseworthy that the European community of Madras does not comprise much more than 1600 persons, of whom only a very few settle any length of time. The Europeans resident here are chiefly military men and merchants, who leave the country after remaining five or ten years, as almost every one regards his stay in this hot, sandy capital of the desert Coromandel coast, as purely provisional, and views it as a stepping-stone towards attaining some better post, or becoming suddenly wealthy by some favourable conjuncture of circumstances. That the majority of these institutions have more practical objects in view admits of ready proof, and is but one instance the more of the moulding power of surrounding circumstances. In the school of arts for instance, under Dr. Hunter's superintendence, there are 20 pupils, mostly Hindoos, who are receiving instruction in drawing, sculpture, lithography, woodcutting, etching, and photography. But in order to reduce, as far as possible, the expenses of this institution, there is also included a manufacture of earthenware, the proceeds arising from the sale of which are applied to the support of the school.
Another eminently useful institution, the Medical College, which, as well as most of the other professional foundations, we visited in the company with our hospitable and influential friend, Dr. Kelly, possesses one division, in which such of the natives as purpose to set up as apothecaries, are at the same time so far educated as to be able, in case of necessity, to perform a few of the minor surgical operations. Of the hundred of an auditory who at the period of our visit were attending a lecture on chemistry, the majority were half-blooded Indians, dressed in the European fashion, with a sprinkling of barely 9 or 10 Hindoos in their white robes, and with the Vishnù or Siva marks on their forehead. We frequently heard the professors, among whom are several gentlemen of high scientific attainments, such, for instance, as Messrs. Evans, Lorimer, Mudge, Montgomery, Mayr, &c., express their regret at the severe check which the development of science sustained by the outbreak of the late revolt. Plans for a new university, a hospital, and a medical school to correspond are all ready, and but for that ruinous catastrophe would have been by this time in working order.
In other respects the present Infirmary is an ugly and unsuitable building, making up about 100 beds for patients. Several of these were occupied by soldiers, who had been severely wounded under Havelock at the storming of Delhi. The introduction of punkahs, or wind-fans, into the wards has proved so salutary, that there is an intention to have them worked without intermission day and night, by means of water power, instead of by manual labour as hitherto. In order to be able to estimate the boon conferred by such an improvement upon the condition of the poor invalids, we must call to mind that the average annual temperature of Madras is about 94° Fahr., which is slightly in excess of the average temperature at the equator, although Madras is 10 degrees north of the line. Under such climatic conditions, it is no wonder that the invigorating wholesome breeze is known at Madras as "The Doctor."
Among the benevolent institutions visited by us, we found the twin asylums for male and female orphans of soldiers well worthy of notice in many particulars. These are for the most part the offspring of European soldiers married to native women, and are known as "half-castes," or "Mestizoes." In the Military Female Asylum, there were at this time 216 girls, who were brought up to all manner of female work, as well as taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, and remained in the institution until suitably provided for in marriage. The marriage outfit, as also a small wedding present of Rs. 50 (£5), for each girl is provided by Government, and the entire working expenses, which amount to about Rs. 30,000 (£3000) annually, are defrayed by a Government grant of Rs. 1000 (£100) a month, together with the interest of the funded capital, upon which Government pays 8 per cent. interest.
The Military Male Orphan Asylum was founded in 1788 by means of voluntary contributions, supplemented by a Government Subvention, and possesses a special historical interest from the circumstance that it was here that Dr. Bell, who held the post of Head-Master in the establishment, first projected and put into execution the method of imparting elementary instruction, afterwards so widely renowned as the Lancastrian method of teaching, which since that period has traversed the globe, and has been introduced into every capital in Europe. The course of instruction of the institution includes writing, reading, arithmetic, grammar, geography, history, English, Tamil, and music. The capital of the institution is vested by Government in the 4 per cent. stocks, paying 8 per cent. interest, which, with the large amount realized within the establishment itself, is sufficient to defray all expenses without any further assistance. The number of boys is about 242. The head teacher, who obligingly conducted us over the whole establishment, which is very handsome, called a dozen boys forward just as we were leaving, who played a few simple pieces on wind instruments, on which they performed a variety of national airs with great precision. The music master was a German.
Among its casual attractions, Madras has occasionally flower shows, and exhibitions of industry, and it is exceedingly gratifying to observe how European science is even here called in to elicit the treasures of nature, and administer to the necessities of mankind. The catalogue of the industrial exhibition of 1857 shows, inter alia, 17 sorts of spices, 20 varieties of resin, 64 plants suitable for the distillation of oil, and 41 different drugs, and Dr. Kirkpatrick, a physician in Mysore, has taken the trouble to enumerate, by their botanical and Indian names, 240 native drugs, which had been sent to the Madras exhibition, as also their market value, and at the same time has subjoined the modes in which the natives use them.
Among the most remarkable private museums which have been formed at Madras for the illustration of the history and monuments of the southern provinces of the Deccan, must undoubtedly be included the collection of native inscriptions and manuscripts of the well-known Colonel Mackenzie, which first attracted the attention of all friends of Oriental science, as also the British Government, through a memoir[104] of Alexander Johnston, Esq. It is a magnificent testimony to the conservative spirit of the British resident among heathen nations, as compared with the barbarous spirit of destruction that characterized the Spanish colonists. From an erroneous idea that they were in so doing promoting the interests of Christianity, these Romanist conquerors destroyed all sculptures and monuments of the pagan Indian races, and, by this fanatical Vandalism, at the same time prevented the hand of science from unfolding, as it might have done from these important vestiges, the history of these very remarkable races from the most remote ages.