History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

270 HISTORY OF THE PARSIS. [CHapP. VI.

George Kittredge and Sorabji Shapurji Bengali, to introduce lady doctors into the city, and to establish under their superintendence a hospital for the exclusive treatment of women. When this benevolent plan for bringing under medical treatment thousands of poor creatures, who would without it have gone to an untimely grave, was brought to the notice of Mr. Pestanji Hormasji Kama (one of the descendants of the Kama who founded the family of that name, and whom we have noticed in a previous chapter) he generously offered to build such a hospital, and tendered the handsome sum of one lakh and sixty thousand rupees for the purpose. When this building is completed, Mr. Pestanji Kama’s name will be blessed by countless thousands of those who will hereafter reap the benefits of his humane generosity. Mr. Pestanj1 Kama’s act is all the more creditable to him, because Parsi women have no aversion whatever to male doctors like their Mahomedan and Hindu sisters, and Mr. Kama’s charity is for this reason the more catholic.

The other recent instance is that of Mr. Sorabji Shapurji Bengali, who gave a sum of Rs.65,000 for building a house for the principal Parsi girls’ school, to which we have already adverted.

In all subscriptions raised in Bombay for charitable and useful objects the Parsi subscriptions are not only as a rule the highest, but, considering their