TNDIAN VETERINARY DEPARTMENT. 501 
with satisfaction to this veterinary surgeon, and advantage to 
the interests of the service, I leave you, Mr. Editor, to judge. 
— Periodical visits to the more remote is all that can be 
attempted, and those few and far between. The only excuse 
or mode of accounting for such grudging or mal-distribution 
of labour may be found in the fact of all appointments to the 
studs being considered staff appointments, involving a little 
patronage and interest, and a little additional pay. Now, if 
any head existed to our department, this glaring inconsistency 
would of course never have occurred ; these studs would have 
been his especial professional province, if not his head 
quarters. Here all young hands recently admitted to the 
veterinary department should pass their probation and trial. 
Here they would find lots of work to employ their time, and 
become acquainted with the practice and diseases of the 
country. Here the principal veterinary surgeon would become 
acquainted with them : and here they would leave a useful 
register of their talents, and likely usefulness. A record which 
the head of a department should possess of those composing 
his staff or charge. 
If the present chaos in the state of our profession in the 
H.E.I.C.’s service should ever be duly laid before, and duly 
weighed by, our honorable masters, then the appointment of 
a head, and the subsequent remodelling of our department 
might be an easy task and soon accomplished. Seniority of 
service would of course have its claims, and here, as also in 
every other requisite, Mr. Western, of the Madras Presidency, 
would stand preeminent. He has passed some 28 years in 
the service, and I am sure you, and every one else will allow, 
with much benefit to the government he serves, as well as to 
our profession generally. Mr. Western’s many discoveries 
and experiments of different medicinal agents and remedies, 
and his liberal and free contributions to science, and the 
advance of veterinary knowledge, entitle him to the respect and 
thanks of the profession at large. His knowledge of this 
country and service, his peculiar observation and judgment, 
and his happy tact in practice, added to his great energy of 
habit and thought, peculiarly fit him for taking the initiative 
in any reform or remodelling of the veterinary department of 
the H.E.I.C.’s service. But whether Mr. Western would 
himself consent to fill for the first time the consequently 
onerous post of principal veterinary surgeon, is another 
question. All we could expect or hope would be for him to 
put the appointment in train, for we must not hope or wish 
to prolong for an indefinite time, Mr. Western’s already pro- 
tracted service in this wearing climate. But before leaving 
