The Medical Journal of Goa: <i>Arquivos de Escola Médico-Cirurgica de Nova Goa</i>

I have reviewed this subject in greater detail elsewhere. 1 Here, I provide a brief summary.Afonso de Albuquerque, soon after his conquest of Goa on St. Catherine day, 25 November 1510, established the Hospital Real do Esprito Santo (Royal Hospital of the Holy Spirit).From small beginnings near the chapel of St.Catherine in what is now called Old Goa, the Royal Hospital grew in stature and became the pride of successive viceroys of Goa and rulers of Portugal.Western medical education was first offered here to the Portuguese and to the native Indian population around 1546.Amongst the pioneering physicians was Garcia da Orta.His classic book Coloquios dos simples, e drogas he cousas mediinais da India was published in 1563 2 and is a rich source of information on tropical medicine, pharmacognosy and ethnobotany of the period (Fig. 1).He worked at the Royal Hospital and may have taught medicine there.Respect for his learning led to invitations to take part in the examinations for conferring medical degrees.It is worth noting that this book was published at the Jesuit Saint Paul College in Old Goa, established in 1556.It was the first printing press in India.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_in_Goa, accessed on 9 June 2020).Boxer 3 provides a comparative analysis of the contributions of Garcia da Orta and Nicolas Monardes-two pioneers of tropical medicine.The Royal Hospital fell upon bad times in the late 17th and early 18th century.Since there were no physicians on its staff, teaching came to a halt.Desultory attempts were made at medical education, but it was only in 1842 and after the transfer of the Hospital Militar to Panjim that the Escola Medico-Cirurgica de Nova Goa was founded.The last two words in its title distinguish it from the school in Old Goa.Starting with an initial batch of 8 students, it rose to eminence in the Portuguese-speaking world.Subsequently, it was known as Goa Medical College.