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dangerous of the wells and gave instructions to disinfect all stables,
fittings, &c., and to bury the carcasses of diseased animals at a depth of
6 feet covered with a thick layer of quicklime at some distance from
the town and in a position from which there will be no drainage towards
any inhabitable place.
49. I visited the outbreak in the Ahmedabad District, but failed to find
rinderpest, and only saw foot and mouth disease and variola. An itinerating
Veterinary Graduate was recommended, but this was not done for want of funds.
The following is a synopsis of my report to the Collector :—
It came to my notice whilst at Sánand that foot and mouth disease
was very prevalent in the Ahmedabad District and that the cause of it was
the introduction of Sindi cattle which come down there for the grazing on
payment of a very small fee for the grazing rights of large tracts of Gov-
ernment land. I suggested that the introduction of these cattle be stopped,
as there were large numbers of cattle already in the district the property
of the permanent population. These cattle become infected with the disease,
and it is not fair on the owners, especially as the cattle population is already
sufficient to eat all the grazing that is available in the district. On fur-
ther enquiry I found that from the symptoms of disease present among
Vanjári cattle that many of them were very suspicious of rinderpest. I
was unable to see any cattle affected with the disease as described by the
local inhabitants. I saw only foot and mouth disease, and the owners of
cattle who were described to me had gone from the British territory into
Káthiáwár, &c., which strengthened my suspicious as to the nature of
the disease.
50. I visited the supposed outbreak of anthrax at Sisodra in the Broach
District, but was not in time to see any actual cases. I append below a synopsis
of my report to the Collector:—
I visited Sisodra on the 12th March 1899 and found that 23 animals
had been attacked and 21 had died. At the time of my visit the disease
had not appeared for 10 days. The animals which had the disease were
either dead or completely recovered. The symptoms, as far as I could gather
from the villagers, were :—(1) acute inflammation of lungs, (2) high fever, (3)
flatulence, (4) blood in fæces shortly before death, and (5) death in two days
from first appearance of any symptom. I procured some fæces said to be
from the diseased animals and also some grass and kirbi from the stack upon
which they had been fed, and water from the tank at which they had drunk.
At Dr. Galleotte's Laboratory I inoculated agaragar tubes with solution
from each of these three, and I also inoculated mice. The result was nil as
far as pathological organisms were concerned. This proves that anthrax
was not present, at least amongst the material obtained. The post-mortem
appearances, as I gathered them from the "Mahárs" in the village, were
those of acute congestion of the lungs and intestines. I did not hear of any
splenic symptoms. From these facts I concluded that the disease was not
anthrax, but some species of poisoning.
51. With regard to the serum treatment of rinderpest, I have been working
on this subject since the beginning of March last at the Sewri Lazaretto in
Bombay. I was unable to commence earlier, as my touring did not give me
sufficient time. Now, however, the regular horse-breeding touring being finished
I find no difficulty in visiting Bombay. The making of a serum is somewhat
tedious, as it depends upon the production of salted animals, i. e., animals that
have recovered from rinderpest, have withstood subsequent inoculation of
virulent matter and whose blood has therefore become innocuous to the effect of
rinderpest and can be used as an immunising agent for other animals. It was
proposed, in the first place, that I should proceed to the seat of an outbreak; but
this year the Presidency has been singularly free from rinderpest, and the out-
breaks which have occurred have been very mild and lasted but a very short time.
Also the expense which would have been entailed in travelling to some out-of-the-
way district with an efficient staff would have been very great, together with
the fact that a considerable amount of expensive apparatus would have been
required, which apparatus was not available in this office. I, therefore, proposed