3
as a distinct loss of professional energy every graduate who fails to practise his
profession. To secure to Government a satisfactory return for its expenditure
on veterinary education and at the same time not repress independence of
feeling and action in the new profession is a matter requiring much tact and
judgment. In anticipation of the first batch of graduates obtaining their
diplomas in the coming May, the question of giving a certain number of them
employment under Government has been under consideration. The representations
made to induce Government to open a Veterinary College, especially those of a
certain section of the Native Press, might reasonably have been taken by
Government to show that in supplying fully educated graduates for veterinary
practice it was meeting a long-felt want, and that the urgent need for such
graduates would lead to their being at once absorbed on obtaining their diplomas
in private practice, as has been the case in most European countries. Expe-
rience, however, with the medical and other professions led Government to
anticipate that there will be a surplus of graduates in veterinary science
whose services may be utilised in the performance of duties beneficial to the
country at large. It might reasonably have been urged that, having supplied
the veterinary practitioners called for, Government should expect the pub-
lic to justify further supply by fully employing all as they become available;
but in consideration of the acknowledged poverty of catle-owners in the districts
where no educated scientific veterinary practitioner could expect to gain a
living by private practice, and considering the known prevalence of contagious
cattle diseases, Government has thought right to recognise scope for a fully organi-
sed cattle-disease repression service and for establishment under local authorities
of Local District Veterinary Hospitals and Dispensaries. While not in any way
committing itself to the establishment of a Civil Veterinary Department, Govern-
ment in its Resolution No. 1457, Revenue Department, dated 21st February 1889,
has made an offer to local bodies with regard to the latter.
It would as yet be premature to make any statement concerning these hospitals
and dispensaries; the general feeling among students is that the inducements
held out are not tempting enough, and presumably it will not be unsatisfactory
to Government if all the earlier graduates can obtain veterinary employment
in other ways sufficiently remunerative to enable them to despise the inducements
offered in connection with the local hospitals. As a matter of fact, there will prob-
ably be candidates for any local hospitals started; especially Hindus, (who have
proved themselves very fair men with cattle), may find the pay offered sufficient.
It is satisfactory to me to be able to report that several districts have considered
the subject and are negotiating with a view to establishing hospitals or dispensaries,
and it is gratifying that the majority of these districts are the ones in which
veterinary aid has already been afforded recently from the College, as by depu-
tation of cattle-disease inspectors.
Native States will absorb some graduates, some will practise privately in Bom-
bay and other large cities of India, some will probably enter Government service
in other provinces, a few will be engaged by large horse-owning companies, muni-
cipalities, and so on, and some (we must anticipate) will become the shifting un-
successful element of which we find evidences more or less considerable in all pro¬
fessions. It is to be hoped that Government will secure absolutely the best men
as a reserve to fill any vacancies which may occur on the College teaching staff';
so I have proposed that three of the graduates specially selected be appointed
temporary College and Hospital Assistants ; they ought to prove valuable to the
College and not expensive to Government. I hope some of our best men will go
into private practice, but that a number of good men will be available for depu-
tation on cattle-disease repression duties and for appointment to the Civil Vete-
rinary Department when it is started. Finally, under Rule B. 17 of the College,
Government is distinctly under no obligation to find employment for graduates
any further than may seem to the benefit of the country and politic in relation to
the idea which seems so current in India that Government having educated men
is bound to employ them. I am confident the veterinary profession of Bombay
will do well in the future, and that the graduates of the Bombay Veterinary
College will be found to be the native skilled agency to intermediate between
British veterinary officers and shrewd country cattle-owners, the want of