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IV.—SUBORDINATE ESTABLISHMENT.
Number, supervision and work performed.
11. There were 6 Veterinary Graduates employed during the year at the
six dispensaries in the Province, the same number as last year. Besides them
the services of a Veterinary Graduate were temporarily entertained by the
Karáchi District Local Board for the suppression of the outbreak of rinderpest
already alluded to.
With reference to the general work done at the Veterinary Dispensaries
during the year the Graduates have shown an increase in the number of patients
treated but to me these figures do not convey a great deal and include a number
of trivial cases, &c. This may be proved to some extent by the fact that out of
5,951 treated in one district 41 were " relieved " (i. e., fit to perform the work
required of them) and every single other animal was cured except those which
actually died (from such diseases as rinderpest, rabies, pneumonia, &c.).
In the same district 1,500 odd inoculations help to swell the total of patients.
Again healthy cattle bought for export are entered as in-patients " under
observation " and are, when ready to ship, discharged as " cured," never having
been ill.
I draw my conclusions on the working of dispensaries and hospitals chiefly
from personal observations made at my inspections.
Mr. Haji (Karáchi) who has submitted a long report has claimed to have
discovered " Surra " in camels in Sind during the year, having previously stated
that it bad not been known in certain districts he named for fifteen years back
—the period he has been working in Karachi. I have fully commented on this
discovery in a previous correspondence. He has also in his annual report stated
that three packs of foxhounds were decimated (belonging to the Karáchi Hunt)
due to the presence of piroplasmosis canis ; but the evidence of the presence of
the organism having been detected in the blood of one hound is hardly sufficient
proof to warrant the above assertion.
From his investigations of a " mysterious " disease in the Karáchi Munici-
pal bullocks he has concluded quite decidedly that they were poisoned through
being fed on " rotten " cotton seed. As the seed was neither subjected to
analysis or other test nor was any experiment tried or thought of by feeding
other animals on the same sample, there are insufficient grounds to come to any
definite conclusions that he is correct. Until I pointed out certain facts he was
about to put down the cause to a certain brew of rinderpest protective serum
with which these cattle had been inoculated some time previously.
I have urged Mr. Haji not to make or publish statements without positive
proof that he is right, and not to be in a hurry and jump to conclusions, but in
his zeal and anxiety he will take his own line.
He is an able officer in many ways and has the gift of expressing himself orally
and in writing, whilst he appears to take much more interest in microscopic
work than the practical business of attending to sick animals himself, leaving
too much of the latter in the hands of an ignorant staff. I must admit that
there is a certain amount of tediousness in working year after year in the same
spot attending to wounds, sprains and oases of fever which help to make up the
bulk of his and other graduate's statistics. Mr. Haji should have selected a
Veterinary College to work in. That would have been his line.
Mr. Asudamal's dispensary (Hyderabad) is the one which nearest approaches
neatness and smartness in this part of my circle. He submits a fairly careful
report, more concise and to the point than any of the others received. Advising
him to enquire into Surra in his district has resulted in the information that it
is known that camel owners avoid certain places during certain times of the
year owing to the presence of a fly. He has accepted advice regarding enquiring
into cattle breeding and has made one or two sensible remarks on the subject.
Mr. Vedh (Shikárpur). His report is another which is too full of figures ;
by his showing he has treated a large number of animals and taking the general
size of the town the total of his cases is in proportion to those of any other
hospital in Sind. His Collector has remarked that Mr. Vedh does not appear to