4
Table IV.
24. Table TV shows the mofussil work of the Verterinary Assistants.
25. During the year there were 45 Itinerating Veterinary Assistants
working in the province and 8 Stationary Assistants who also toured in
interior, periodically or when outbreaks of diseases required them to do so.
They visited 9,810 villages and treated 50,598 patients against 10,409 villages
and 52,705 patients of the previous year. The decrease is mainly due to
foot-and-mouth disease being less prevalent during the year. Moreover the
outbreaks of Rinderpest and Hæmorrhagic Septicæmia being unusually
severe in many districts, the attention of the Veterinary Assistants was
engaged with the more important duty of inoculation. Considering these
facts the total amount of work done by the assistants was fairly satisfactory.
Table V.—Hospitals and Dispensaries.
26. Table V shows the working of the hospitals and dispensaries
which numbered 18 during the year.
27. No new hospitals were started during the year nor any change
took place in the management of the existing ones, the dispensaries at
Sodepore Pinjrapole, Howrah and Coach Behar being managed privately as
before and the others by local bodies.
28. Four thousand, four-hundred eighty-one in and 17,022 out-patients
were treated at these dispensaries during the year against 4,921 and
17,185 respectively of the previous year. Of the decrease of 440 cases
under in-patients, Sodepore Pinjrapole alone is responsible for 287. The
fluctuations against other dispensaries are only nominal and call for no
special comment.
29. The Veterinary Assistants in charge of Rangpur, Mymensingh and
Chinsurah Dispensaries have been relieved of their itinerating duties by the
appointment of additional Veterinary Assistants for that purpose. They are
now exclusively in charge of the dispensaries.
80. The dispensary at Chinsurah has not yet been properly equipped with
furniture and instruments for want of funds. Establishment of a Veterinary
Hospital at Dacca has been sanctioned by Government at an estimated
cost of Us. 59.121—Rs. 24.250 for the buildings and Rs. 34,871 for acquisition
of land. The building work will be taken up shortly.
Ml. Two dispensaries, one at Krishnagar and the other at. Faridpur,
have been completed and started during the current year, and there are
proposals for opening dispensaries at Alipore, Berhampore and Khulna. The
proposal to construct a hospital at Bakarganj has been given up for the
present the District Board having refused to undertake it. They have,
however, agreed to take two more Itinerating Veterinary Assistants in the
district in lieu of the hospital and Government sanction has since been
obtained for the same.
PART III—Breeding Operation.
82. Table VIII shows the number of stud bulls at present serving in
the various districts of the province. As reported last year, these are either
the property of the Jail authorities or of the District Boards, and very little
advantage is taken of them by the cattle-owning public.
33. With regard to the condition of cattle generally in Bengal, I have
nothing to add to my last year's report. Briefly it is most unsatisfactory, and
efforts to advise and demonstrate how they may be improved, receive little or
no attention or support from cattle-owners and raiyats. A pamphlet on this
subject is being prepared by this Department for circulation, and an endeavour
to organise lantern lectures at Shows and mêlas is being made.
34. In time it is hoped that the experimental cattle farm at Rangpur
will prove a useful example, that the more educated owners will appreciate.