( 4 )
4. I have applied the Act somewhat more strictly this year. Six prose-
cutions were instituted and in five cases the owners were convicted and fined.
There has been no trouble with the people.
5. Rupees 1,000 were sanctioned for the payment of compensation in
certain cases and as an experiment to poor people whose horses are destroyed
under the Glanders and Farcy Act and for the payment of a small fee to persons
who give information of outbreaks of disease. In 28 cases compensation was
given to the amount of Rs. 495-4-0 and fees amounting to Rs. 62 were paid
in 40 cases for information. The contribution which was obtained from
Government on the recommendation of Mr. Grourlay has been the means
of saving much hardship to poor people.
(3. Whilst the Remount Depôt was closed from April to October, 1,250
horses and 35 cattle were inspected by the Glanders staff on boardship at
the Port of Calcutta; no clinical symptoms were observed.
7. Seven hundred and seventy-nine head of cattle were inoculated against
Rinderpest in Calcutta and Suburbs by the Glanders staff. The outbreaks
were of a mild description. The details of inoculations have been included
in Table III of the departmental report.
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE RAYMOND RESEARCH
LABORATORY, 1908-09.
PREFACE.
THE Inspector-General in his No. 780-433 of 8th June 1908, requested
that in future a separate report should be rendered yearly upon the work
done in laboratories. As this is the first report of the kind emanating from
this Institution it may be well to record something of the history of the
place.
2. In September 1903, Colonel Morgan, who was at the time Inspector¬
General, recommended that a pit should be dug in the floor of one of the lecture
rooms for the purpose of keeping biological products cool in the hot weather.
This proposal was not found feasible, hence it was suggested that a cellar
might be constructed in the grounds of the Annexe and covered with a super¬
structure which might easily be used as a laboratory. From this modest
beginning the Institution sprang. It was soon found that the work rendered
extension of the premises necessary. Government was able to sanction my
proposals and to allow me to procure the necessary apparatus.
3. The laboratory now comprises a central building, a post-mortem, and
an operating room. The central building consists of a work room for the
Pathologist, a chemical and bacteriological laboratory, a micro photographic
and drawing room, a dark room, and an incubator room, besides a cellar for
stocking serum and other biological products. The staff consists of myself,
Mr. S. N. Mitter, a graduate of the Bengal Veterinary College, who is
my Lecturer on Pathology, but who does the work of Senior Assistant in the
laboratory, Babu Sachindra Kishore Das Roy, Junior Assistant, also of an
artist and two bearers who have been trained to prepare media, etc.
4. In 1906 the Government of Bengal gazetted this laboratory as the place
for the investigation and diagnosis of animal diseases in the Province by
Notification No. 1896Agri., of the 9th April 1906, and in the following year
we undertook, at the request of the Chairman of the Calcutta Corporation,
the diagnosis of rabies, which is so very prevalent in Calcutta. In the same
year the Government in their No. 2122T.—R., dated the 30th September 1907,
was pleased to order that my name should be connected with this laboratory.
The following report deals with the work done from 1st April 1908 to 31st
March 1909.
The work may be divided under sections as follows: —
SECTION I.—DIAGNOSIS OF DISEASES UNDER GLANDERS AND FARCY ACT
(XIII OF 1899).
Glanders and Farcy.—The total number of horses admitted into the
Contagious Diseases Hospital for Glanders and Farcy was 296.