4
a sort of loose control by the Agricultural Department with which the College has
most cordial relations. Indeed when it is fully recognized by all concerned that
Veterinary Science comprises a knowledge of domesticated animals of all kinds
in all their relations during health as well as during disease, the fact that the
Veterinary and Agricultural Departments have common interests in much of
their work will be fully appreciated.
The College still maintains its position as the only one of the kind in India, and
a recent Resolution of the Government of India that centres of higher veterinary
education at Lahore (Vernacular) and Bombay (English) will for some time
suffice for the requirements of the country promise to secure for the College its
exceptional position for some time. Lahore Veterinary School and the Bombay
Veterinary College have each their own sphere. The latter, however, promises
to become a normal school of Veterinary Science from which instructors in minor
schools will come. Thus we must make a few of our Graduates very high class men
suited for special appointments considerably above the average in emoluments and
can offer a good opening to a limited number of Matriculates who after gradua-
tion have put in a Post-Graduate course of one year as Assistant Veterinary
Officers. Such men should meet any requirements and keep up the reputation
of our College. We have already, it will be noted, Graduates holding posts as
Veterinary Instructors in Nágpur and Madras on good salaries and with good
position. I have just received an application for a similar man for Burma.
Another noteworthy feature is the fact that our College is beginning to be re-
cognized as affording an opening for English young men of country education ;
men who thus enter the veterinary profession are excellent material and ought,
in due course, to prove valuable to Government.
5. Last year I recorded a marked falling off in the number of entries; this
year there has been not much change for the better. Although this means small
classes for a year or two, I do not consider it as giving grounds for serious doubt
of the future welfare of the College. The causes have now been removed, so I look
forward to more entries in the coming year. On enquiry I find we are going
through the experience of other special colleges and have yet to inspire public
confidence by proving that our education is not a drug in the market ; I believe
we are doing so gradually but surely. There is a useful element in the country
of men who have become empirical practitioners because they had no facilities
in India for systematic veterinary studies, men who have attended the veteri-
nary courses at the Agricultural and Army Veterinary Schools and have been
practising with the smattering of knowledge thus obtained. It is my endeavour
to attract such men to the College by giving them concessions for their previous
studies and experience, and this policy has been supported by the College Com-
mittee and approved by Government. We have thus drawn into the veterinary
profession some men who in due course would have become formidable opponents
to our Graduates. Thus I am gradually paving the way to the time when the
veterinary profession can ask Government for an Act to recognize it and to
protect the public against empiricism. This must come in due course, though
it may as yet be in the distant future. European countries with advanced
legislative systems fully recognize that a Veterinary Act is an efficient means of
benefiting the public and at the same time it is an encouragement to the pro-
fession. The latter has a right to legal recognition ; although it may be freely and
unreservedly accepted by all that the veterinary profession is for the public not
the public for the profession. In expanding its veterinary organization a country
is making reproductice expenditvre.
6. The local Veterinary Hospitals and Dispensaries which were initiated
during the past year in Ahmedabad, Dhulia, Násik, and Nadiád seem to have
answered their purpose well and to have met a real want of the country. It is
to be hoped they will be increased in number in the coming and future years.
Reports of the efficiency of the Graduates in charge have been satisfactory, and
visits which I casually made to three of them showed me the records, instru-
ments, and medicines in good order and led me to believe the veterinary officers
in charge did their work. Government apparently wishes all official connection
with them to be through the Director of Agriculture and possibly looks on them
as a means of testing the efficiency of my instruction of Graduates, but I cannot