18
used in Aden might perhaps be suitable for riding-camels in Sind, where
wounds are subject to " fly-blow " all the year round. Camel-pox was seen at
Naushahro.
In Naushahro, Kandiaro and Hala Talukas an amaurosis is met with
in camels; investigation has shown that this is probably due to the local
practice of feeding the pods of babul (Acacia Arabica) as a ration to camels,
and these pods are here subject to a fungoid disease called Rati, which causes
a red growth in the pod and is known to the Imperial Mycologist. The amau-
rosis thus seems to be due to cryptogamic poisoning, and the camels recover
after a time.
39. Baluchistan.—Surra, is known to occur in Zhob ; and in 1906 Mr. Mont-
gomery had found a great deal of surra among Powindah camels grazing in the
hot weather among the hills north and north east of Khushdil Khan ; my tour
was therefore intended to ascertain whether the disease was serious or not (i)
below Nushki, ii) in the P:shin Valley, and iii) in the Kachhi below Sibi.
Unfortunately at the last moment the tour in the latter place had to be aban-
doned owing to trouble at Lehri.
The deserts below Nushki and in Kharan are the principal breeding
grounds in the north of Baluchistan, and I stayed at Nushki for some time
making enquiries and examining camels.
Surra is known to the chiefs and camelmen as a disease which is very
rife in Seistan ; they do not trouble much about it, however, as their own
camels seldom suffer from it ; they have not even got a name for the disease.
I failed to find any case of surra among camels from the plains below Nushki.
Taken as a whole, therefore, these deserts seem to be little afflicted with surra;
but I am told there is much tamarisk (" ghaz ") near Kacha Thana, however,
and if this is so, I think it is possible that Tabanus might be found there at
some season ; cases among camels were reported from there in 1910, although
that does not prove that it spread there. I found Filariasis and the camel-fly
Hippobosca Camelina on camels from Dalbandin. Brahuis from the flat
valleys between the mountains south of the Nushki-Spezancl line say that
Tabanus " mich " occurs by the streams there, but that there is plenty of room
to avoid them in the wide valleys in the hot whether, and although cases oc-
casionally occur, surra is not of much moment.
In the Pishin Valley I visited Pishin, Sara Nan, Kila Abdulla and Gulistan,
confining my attention to camels grazing entirely in the plain or open valley
through the hot weather. Breeding is only carried on on a small scale, most
of the camels being owned by local Pathans and purchased from below Nushki.
I failed to find any surra among these, and the disease is not well-known except
by repute as a plague of Seistan. It is the local custom to avoid grazing
camels in the hot weather in the narrow valleys where Tabanus is found,
such as that of the Surkhab lying to the east of Pishin, and in the Toba, but
the Powindahs are less particular, and so their camels get surra. If a Camel
Corps is ever raised in this part of Baluchistan, Powindah remounts should be
avoided, and all remounting should be of Brahui camels. Besides suffering
little from surra, the local camel is small and so suited to the sparse vegetation
of the country, worts well on hill or plain, and will eat white bhusa. If used
on the trade route, the question of presence or absence of biting-flies on the
reported tamarisk grazing grounds should be settled.
40. Other animals.— "Equine filariasis was met with in Sind, and is, I
think, a common cause of unfitness there, the symptoms somewhat resembling
those of heart-troubles. Affected horses " do " badly, sweat freely on slight exer-
tion, and frequently show œdematous swellings on body and sheath ; the history
of sickness often goes back 1 or 2 years A " cure " is badly wanted.
Fowl spirochaetosis.—Further dosage experiments gave 19 cures out
of 21 by a single injection of ¼ grain Soamin into the pectoral muscle.
These were Indian fowls, and all untreated controls died.