PROBASHI- A Cultural News Magazine Volume 2 Issue 2 | Page 43

Probashi-Science
Upendranath started out to
become a mathematician, and
passed his BA in mathematics in
1893 from the then prestigious
Hooghly College and was awarded
the Thwaytes Gold Medal for
topping the examination. It was
then that Brahmachari decided to
change tracks and joined the
Presidency College Calcutta to
pursue Masters in Chemistry from
where he graduated in 1894. He
again changed tracks and joined the
Calcutta Medical College from
where he obtained the Licentiate in
Medicine and Surgery degree in
1899, Doctor of Medicine (MD)
Degree in 1902 and PhD in
Physiology
in
1904
on

Brahmachari started his career as a
doctor under Sir Gerald Bomford
(1851-1915) in Calcutta. Bomford
recognised Brahmachari’s talent and
offered the then 27 year old
Brahmachari a teaching position in
Physiology in Dacca Medical School in
November 1901. Probably without
Bomford’s
encouragement,
Brahmachari might not have been a
medical researcher, and probably
taken the more remunerative career
of a physician. Bomford went on to
become the Director-General and
Surgeon General of the Indian
Medical Services He was also the
Principal at Medical College Hospital,
Calcutta, India.

Dr. UN Brahmachari
physiochemical properties of Red
Blood Cells. On the say he picked
up the Goodeve and McLeod
Medals for topping in Surgery and
Medicine respectively.
Such a
phenomenal array of degrees was
a rare phenomenon in those days,
and probably is true even now.

Brahmachari’s
grounding
in
chemistry and medicine set the
stage for the discovery of urea
Stibamine
an
antimonial
compound for treatment of
Kalaazar which would go on to
save millions of lives.
After completing his studies,
Brahmachari did a four year stint
as faculty at the Dacca Medical
College where he made his initial
forays in medical research.
Subsequently Brahmachari joined
the faculty at Campbell Medical
School (now the Neel Ratan Sircar
College of Medicine), Kolkata in
1905 where he for next 20 years
would relentlessly pursue the
antidote for Kalaazar.
Kalaazar manifests as fever
accompanied
with
black
pigmentation and if not treated
can be fatal. It first came to the
attention of Western doctors in
1824 in Jessore, India (now
Bangladesh), where it was initially
thought to be a form of malaria. In
1870 the first reported outbreak of
Kalaazar took place in Assam which
spread to Bengal and Bihar. This
and subsequent outbreaks claimed
millions of lives. Many villages in
Assam
were
completely
depopulated.
It took sometime before medical
science could get to the bottom of
the disease aided by some of the
most brilliant minds of those times.
The parasite causing the disease
was isolated in India in 1903 by
41

Colonel Sir Robert Neil Campbell (18541928) was the Superintendent of the
Dhaka
Medical
School,
where
Brahmachari was the faculty. It was in
collaboration with Campbell that
Brahmachari started his medical
research.

William Leishman and Charles
Donovan, British doctors working in
India. The parasite specie was
named after both of them—
Leishmania donovani on suggestion
of
Sir
Ronald
Ross.
The
epidemiology and the Sandfly as the
agent which spreads Kalaazar was
confirmed by experts working on
the Indian Kalaazar Commission.
The initial treatment regimen for
Kalaazar
was
Tartarmetric
injections, which had low cure rate,
95% of the sufferers would perish!
1915 to 1920, Brahmachari worked
with single-minded determination
to discover a new drug to cure
Kalaazar.
He carried out his
research work in a small illequipped room in the Campbell
Hospital which did not have even
simple facilities like a gas burner, a
water tap or an electric bulb.
Brahmachari would work through
the night under the light of the
lantern, the fire within him to save
lives of his countrymen kept his
morale high. In 1919 he struck