[ 47 ] 



rains. "Within the week, as though by magic, the 

 burning sands are carpeted with rank luscious her- 

 bage, the cattle will eat and over-eat, and millions die 

 of one form or other of cattle disease, springing out 

 of this starvation, followed by sudden repletion with 

 rank, juicy, immature herbage. 



Many years ago, the writer, when advocating the 

 establishment of Veterinary Colleges,* estimated the 



* I quote from the memorandum on this subject which I sub- 

 mitted to Government : — 



" According to censuses taken in tlie Punjab, Central Provinces, 

 &c., there is at ]3resent in India about one head of horned cattle 

 to every two human beings. This would give us about 100 mil- 

 lions of cattle, worth at the very lowest calculation dS75,000,000." 



" It is not too much to say that one-half the whole capitalised 

 wealth of ninety-nine hundredths of the whole population of 

 India is to be found in their cattle ; it is not too much, I be- 

 lieve, to assume that the value of this cattle falls little, if at all, 

 short of 75 millions sterling. Hitherto diseases of the most 

 virulent character have raged amidst agricultural stock unchecked, 

 and almost unknown to and uncared for by the Government. 

 Periodically, plagues and murrains have devastated vast districts, 

 sweeping away the hard-earned savings of millions, and not only 

 depriving them of the means of subsistence, but seriously endan- 

 gering the food supply of the empire. Are we to accept such 

 calamitous visitations as dispensations of Providence to be ac- 

 quiesced in humbly, and submitted to as inevitable ? The spirit 

 of the present age will permit no such passive submission. Mis- 

 fortune and disease will and must come ; but whether in the case 

 of man or beast, it is for intelligent rulers to struggle against the 

 calamity, and circumscribe, by every effort that science can sug- 

 gest, the limits of its action. Everything must have a commence- 

 ment. Sanitation of human beings has been set on foot, and we 

 have now that of their humble but indispensable servants to care 

 for. I expect no great success at first. I look for no immediately 

 valuable results. The best trees take longest to grow. All I ask 

 is to be allowed to plant the seed ; and I submit that, having re- 

 gard to the circumstances of the country, it is no unreasonable 



