10 REPORT OF THE IMPERIAL INSTITUTE OF VETERINARY RESEARCH,
This position is reflected by the stocks of rinderpest serum held in
reserve in recent years on the 1st April, as compared with those of 1919
(given above):—1924, 23,13,797 doses ; 1925, 20,63,331 doses; 1926,
39,35,883 doses. All large orders for this serum have been executed
during the last two years by the despatch of consignments from Muktesar
within an average period of five days (shortest 2, longest 11) after the
receipt, usually by telegram, of the orders. Bearing in mind the depen-
dence that may be placed on compliance with orders, our Provincial
customers can therefore make arrangements to their own satisfaction
regarding the stocks they need keep in reserve to deal with impending
outbreaks.
The reported number of deaths from contagious disease, mainly
rinderpest, is 3,99,845, as compared with 3,37,396 in the year of most
intense mortality during the preceding period of recrudescence. The
difference is not formidable, considering the probability that the system
of reporting may have developed in the meantime. However, only
28,15,733 doses of rinderpest serum were issued in 1919-20, as compared
with 52,95,829 doses in 1925-26 ; and 7,09,795 inoculations were per-
formed by the field staffs in 1919-20, as compared with 15,50,199 in
1925-26. Further, during the year at present under report, 1926-27,
53,80,187 doses of rinderpest serum were issued from Muktesar, and
13,01,783 inoculations performed by the field staffs.
It will be readily observed also that the capacity of the Muktesar
Institute to supply products for combating animal disease is now far
in advance of the capacity of the field services to apply the requisite
treatment. Whereas in some Provinces, such as the Central Provinces,
the reports forthcoming are that the veterinary staffs are able to deal
with all outbreaks, in most Provinces the veterinary staffs are quite
inadequate to deal with the number of outbreaks brought to their notice
in years when disease is serious.
With the passing away of the period when financial stringency was
the most acutely prevailing cry, it seems that a period is about to super-
vene when research may again be a predominant topic, and as all human
activities are dependent to some degree on finance, it may not be irre-
levant in a report of this kind to furnish indications upon the directions
in which such funds as may be forthcoming ought to be expended. The
Muktesar Laboratory, from the time when a titular head was appointed
in. 1890 and when its functions were clearly defined to be those of investi-
gating animal disease and ascertaining the methods of preventing and
curing them, has gradually developed into an institution that has
assumed the characteristics mainly of a large manufacturing under-
taking. In doing so, it has devised the means, by placing in the hands of
the field veterinary workers an abundance of reliable prophylactic agents,
of combating disease in a most practical form. Whether this kind of
activity is called " pure research " or not, is matter of no concern to
the individual most intimately affected, the Indian stock-owner. There
is no reason, with the knowledge already made available by research and
the material forthcoming as a result of this knowledge, why the most