 "the only works upon European medicine extant... are ... chiefly in the Nagree character which is only understood by Hindu native doctors".Mouat spent 30 years in India, where he was a leading figure in the field of education, in which he was a major campaigner to establish the first universities in India especially the University of Calcutta and prison reform, including holding the post of Inspector-General of jails in lower Bengal.Here he advocated remunerative prison labour as a means for reformation and making prisons self-supporting.