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admitted in the hospital during the year, I beg to suggest that if a veterinary
school and hospital be established in Madras proper, a larger number of patients
might be sent to and received in hospital, and thereby the practical teaching
of the students would be conducted on a sounder basis. No student, whether
medical or veterinary, can learn to be a sound practitioner unless he has the
opportunity of duly walking the wards of a hospital well-filled with patients, and
thus rendered able to see disease in its various phases, and to learn how to dis-
criminate between the symptoms of one and another, and to acquire a thorough
knowledge of practical medicine and surgery.
7. I trust I may be pardoned for noting my belief that the students issued
from the Saidapet Agricultural College and Veterinary Hospital, with its paucity
of patients, cannot have acquired that practical knowledge of cattle diseases
which a Veterinary Assistant should possess. I would therefore earnestly sug-
gest that His Excellency in Council may be pleased to have a veterinary school
and hospital established in the Madras metropolis.
8. The following staff would suffice for the school:—
One European Veterinary Surgeon of the Civil Veterinary Department
as Resident Surgeon and Professor of Cattle and Horse Pathology.
One Veterinary Hospital Assistant and Superintendent of the Shoeing
Forge.
One Native Lecturer on Anatomy and Physiology.
One Native Lecturer on Chemistry and Materia Medica.
Believing that Mr. Shunker, at present employed under the Madras Gov-
ernment, and considered a worthy and practical man, and, as I have been informed
by a Veterinary Surgeon under whom he conducted his duties as Farrier-Major
when in a Madras Cavalry Regiment that he was always found a reliable Hospi-
tal Superintendent, I can but think he would prove a good Veterinary Hospital
Assistant and Superintendent of the Shoeing Forge.
The present Veterinary Assistant in charge of the Saidapet Veterinary
Hospital (Mr. Narainrao), having passed through a course of study at the Bom-
bay Veterinary College, would probably be found fit for the position of Teacher
of Anatomy and Physiology; and a Lecturer or Assistant Lecturer on Chemistry
and Materia Medica of the Madras Medical College would be able to under-
take the duties of Teacher of Chemistry, and in due time of Veterinary Materia
Medica. Thus the staff of a veterinary school would be easily formed, and on
the lines indicated in an inexpensive manner.
9. As I believe there is no Civil Veterinary Surgeon practising in Madras,
it may be expected that the Madras public would consider the establishing of
a veterinary hospital in which sick and lame domesticated animals might be
received and duly treated a boon. Moreover, the sick Government cattle within
a certain radius of the hospital buildings might be sent there for treatment, and
thus the students would have every chance of seeing and attending to medical
and surgical practice.
The Shoeing Forge, conducted on sound principles, would become appre-
ciated by owners of horses in Madras. By having the hospital open to the
public, the fees, which should be on a very moderate scale, will contribute to
the cost of the school and hospital.
This veterinary school and hospital will be thus for the educating and
providing of practical cow-doctors for the districts to act as Veterinary Assist-
ants in the suppressing of ordinary cattle diseases and cattle plagues; they
would also have the opportunity during their pupilage of gaining knowledge
regarding the diseases of other animals, and would become useful general prac-
titioners. In the event of the Madras Government finding it advisable to
have selected graduates of this school educated up to a higher standard, they
might be sent to the Veterinary College at Bombay, and after that, if deemed
necessary, for a course of study at the Bacteriological Laboratory at Poona.