Veterinary Science in India

Abstract

IN his presidential address before the Section of Veterinary Research of the Indian Science Congress Association at its recent jubilee meeting in Calcutta, Sir Arthur Olver discussed “The Development of Veterinary Work in India”. Sir Arthur gave a detailed history of the early pioneers of veterinary science in India and the great efforts they made to lay down the foundation upon which the present structure had been built. So long ago as 1788, Joseph Earl published in Calcutta an English translation of a Sanskrit work on the diseases of horses entitled “Saluter and Farrier”, and in 1799 a number of qualified veterinary surgeons, graduates of the London Veterinary College, were drafted to India for the organization of cattle and camel breeding and the establishment of studs for the breeding of cavalry horses. The most prominent among these was William Moorcroft, who was appointed in 1808 by the East India Company as superintendent of their Bengal stud at Pusa, in North Bihai ; and it is recorded that by improved management he reduced losses by 90 per cent, and amongst other things introduced the cultivation of oats into India. Unfortunately, whilst on an expedition to Central Asia on behalf of his scheme to improve the breed of remounts for India he was murdered, but his writings were of exceeding value, not only on veterinary subjects but also in connexion with agriculture ; and he is credited with having placed the Kashmer shawl industry on a sound footing, and to have described a breed of mountain sheep with wonderful wool and to have given an account-of a new species of the genus Equua which was neither horse, ass, nor mule, and which he thought might have been the 'Onagar' of Pliny.