REVENUE DEPARTMENT.
AGRICULTURE.
CALCUTTA, THE 8TH SEPTEMBER 1914.
RESOLUTION—No. 8887.
RAED—
The Annual Reports of the Veterinary College and of the Civil Veterinary Department, Bengal,
for the year 1913-14, with the Director of Agriculture's review thereof.
THE post of Principal of the Bengal Veterinary College was held by
Major Smith throughout the year, while Mr. P. J. Kerr was Superintendent
of the Veterinary Department, Bengal, except for the period from the 20th
November 1913 to the 22nd February 1914, when he was on leave, and
Major Smith held charge of the current duties of the office of the Superin-
tendent in addition to his own duties. Mr. A. D. Maegregor, m.r.c.v.s., on
his appointment to the Indian Civil Veterinary Department, was posted for
training to the Bengal Veterinary College, which he joined on the 30th
March 1914. Major Smith was on tour for 20 days, and Mr. Korr for 75
days, during which he visited all the districts of the Presidency except three.
2. There was a further slight decrease in the number of students at
the College during the year, the number on the roll at the end of the session
being 91, of whom 76 were stipendiary students, as against 99 in the
preceding year, including 88 stipendiary students. The falling off in the
attendance at the College is due partly to the reluctance of most District
Boards to increase the Veterinary staff in their employ, and partly to the
inadequacy of the prospects open to the lower branches of the Veterinary
Service. Measures for removing both these obstacles are under the consid-
eration of Government. The results of the year's work were, on the whole,
satisfactory. Twenty-five students graduated from the College at the close
of the year, the percentage of passes at the final examination being
73.53 as compared with 67.5 in 1912-13. The Board of Examiners has,
however, again very strongly represented that the teaching staff at the
College is inadequate to give a proper training in vaccine therapy and
in the theory and practice of preventive inoculation. The matter is one
of grave importance, as the chief duty of the majority of the graduates of the
College in their active careers is the prevention and control of infectious
diseases. The Governor in Council has accordingly submitted to the
Government of India proposals for increasing the staff of the College, so as
to enable it to keep abreast of the modern developments of veterinary science.
3. The Raymond Research Laboratory at the College continued to do
useful work in the diagnosis of contagious and obscure diseases. The
popularity of the institution is increasing, and cases were sent for examination
not only by the Provincial Veterinary Departments, but also by local private
practitioners, both European and Indian, and by the general public. The
examination of pathological specimens and the conduct of autopses continue
to increase in number. Materials were supplied to Colonel W. D. Sutherland,
Imperial Serologist, Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Leonard Rogers and Sir John
Mcfadyean for their work. One Veterinary Assistant from the Central
Provinces and another from Travancore attended the Post-graduate Course
at the Laboratory.
4. The report of the Civil Veterinary Department shows that 13,136
deaths of animals from contagious diseases were reported during the year
against 8,087 in the previous year. The number of deaths amongst equines
from the principal contagious diseases fell from 373 in the previous year to
279, while the number of deaths amongst bovines increased from 7,637 to
12,847. The increase in the latter case is attributed partly to the fact that
rinderpest was more prevalent during the year than in the preceding year
and partly to better reporting of outbreaks. There were 10,318 deaths amongst
bovines from rinderpest alone against 5,154 in the preceding year. The
disease appeared in a somewhat virulent form in the districts of Burdwan,
Midnapore, Hooghly, the 24-Parganas, Dacca, Mymensingh and Pabna, but