149 
INDIA, &C. 
but this will be a sacrifice to friendship, and not to professional 
duty ; and I certainly think that we ought not to run the risk of 
taking the bread out of the horsedealer’s mouth, by advancing 
an opinion which we have no opportunity of deciding correctly, 
and which therefore may be erroneous. 
My letter has swelled much beyond its intended limits, but 
I hope these vague and hurried observations may not be entirely 
useless, and that the subject may receive the benefit of other 
abler and more practised pens. 
INDIA, &c. 
OBSERVATIONS ON THE VETERINARY ESTABLISHMENT AT 
PRESENT IN INDIA, WITH A PLAN OF AMENDMENT 
PRESENTED TO THE HON. COURT OF EAST INDIA DI- 
RECTORS, AND TO EDWARD COLEMAN, ESQ., PROFESSOR, 
IN 1824, BY MR. J. T. HODGSON. 
There being no veterinary establishment at the Bengal Pre- 
sidency, by the general orders, dated 17th March, 1821, Mr. 
Hodgson, the veterinary surgeon at Hissar stud, was appointed 
veterinary surgeon to the governor-general’s body guard, and to 
superintend the tuition of veterinary students at Bally-Gunge, 
Calcutta, a measure from which the governor-general in council 
anticipated much future advantage to the cavalry branch of the 
service. 
By the general orders, dated the 12th May 1821, eight assist- 
ant apothecaries on the establishment were selected and assem- 
bled at the Presidency, for the purpose of being placed under 
Mr. Hodgson’s charge, with a view to their being prepared for 
employment with corps of native cavalry; and as an encourage- 
ment for these students early to acquire the requisite proficiency 
to enable them to discharge veterinary duties with effect, on 
being reported fit to join corps, they were to be promoted to 
sub-assistant veterinary surgeons, and placed on the same footing 
in regard to pay, allowances, See. as the army apothecaries. 
Mr. Hodgson, in his letters dated the 1st of April and 18th of 
May, 1822, stated his reasons why the proposed plan was not 
likely to be of advantage to the service, and forwarded a copy of 
a similar plan for providing His Majesty’s cavalry with veterinary 
surgeons, which was suggested, it appears, by a board of general 
officers, who had been assembled to take into consideration, 
among other matters, the means of improving the practice of 
the veterinary art in those corps ; and accordingly, by the regu- 
