498 
INDIAN VETERINARY DEPARTMENT. 
INDIAN VETERINARY DEPARTMENT. 
To the Editor of ‘ The Veterinarian 
Dear Sir, — As a Veterinary Surgeon in the H.E.I.C. 
service, I beg to record my thanks to you and Mr. Western 
for your exposition of the manifest want we labour under 
here of some head to our profession. On our entree into the 
service we are admitted in orders to the tc Veterinary Depart- 
ment/ 5 a department which verily has been made neither head 
nor tail of. The prejudice which such a crude state of things 
must entail both on the interest of the service, and on the 
character and standing of our profession at large, is but too 
apparent to need dwelling on. Your own sound remarks on 
the subject in your leader of October last, and the evidence of 
our worthy and talented friend Western, are conclusive on 
the point. Though I lack faith in the hope of our honorable 
masters even deigning to give ear or consideration to a 
subject, which, in our opinion, is one affecting in no small 
degree the interest of their service, I still must recognise and 
appreciate your adverting to the matter, as a becoming duty 
in the editor of our only professional organ, and our first and 
respected authority on all subjects connected with the best 
interests of the profession. 
For your information, I must tell you that all matters con- 
nected with the mounted branches of the service — that is as 
far as the horse is concerned — are at a sadly low ebb. The 
breeding and rearing of the remount is in incompetent hands, 
and the produce consequently of the worst and most 
degenerate description. The after management and hygiene 
of the troop horse is shackled by orders too much dictated by 
prejudice, without reference to authority or reason. These 
facts, however, have often before been brought forward with- 
out claiming the least attention. The character and degene- 
racy of the stud-bred horse have been officially reported on by 
one of the most experienced and best informed of our profes- 
sion out here, as you will see by a reference to the letter of 
Mr. Hurford of H.M. 9th Lancers, in the Veterinarian , 
No. 59> for November 1852. The mismanaged stable practice 
is sufficiently shown, in Mr. Western’s letter, in your March 
number. The system of watering after feeding, as laid down 
by standing orders, prevails here as well as in the Madras 
presidency. 
Now I cannot help hoping and thinking, that had our 
department out here possessed a fitting head, that such 
things would never have come to pass. We should have had 
