𝗠𝗕𝗕𝗦.
Every medical student aspires for this degree. But what does MBBS stand for?*🤔
We owe it to the Bombay University
In 1906, it began awarding MB, & BS — an acronym for Medicine Baccalaureus, & Bachelor of Surgery. This Latin and English hybrid became MBBS.

Baccalaureus in MBBS has an interesting etymology.
It comes from Latin bacca (“berry”) and laurea (“laurel”).
Graduates those days wore laurel crowns filled with berries, a custom that symbolized the fruit of their study.

Today India has more than 590 medical colleges, and about 64 standalone postgraduate institutes.
There are more than 70,000 hospitals in India. Healthcare system in India is ancient
We first interacted with modern medicine through Portuguese physicians
A Portuguese doctor Manoel Roiz de Sousa was the first to initiate some sort of medical teaching in Goa in 1691. Portuguese medical school is forefather of Goa Medical College.
However, British East India Company (EIC) established first hospitals. First modern hospital was Cogan’s house (west 1664) in Fort St George (current Chennai). Built for the company officials and soldiers, it shifted many locations in next 100 years. EIC built another hospital in Fort Williams (current Kolkata) – Presidency hospital in 1707.
Britishers established early native medical schools in Calcutta (1822) and Bombay (1826)
. Meanwhile, French had established Ecole de medicine de Pondicherry in 1823. This French medical school is a forefather of JIPMER Pondicherry

. These efforts were either intermittent or unstructured. These efforts gave way to more structured and sustainable options in later years.

First Medical Colleges in India: Calcutta, Agra and Madras