THE ANOMALOUS POSITION OF THE INDIAN 
ARMY VETERINARY SURGEONS. 
India; March , 1861. 
Gentlemen, —You are probably not aware of the extent 
to which the existence of veterinary surgeons in the army 
in India is ignored by combatant officers, and their opinion 
and assistance dispensed with under circumstances which, in 
England, would render their presence and advice absolutely 
necessary. As an instance of this allow me to give you the 
following. 
A few months ago a troop of horse artillery and a light 
field battery were out at exercise together, and while execut¬ 
ing some manoeuvre a horse of the latter got injured in the 
off hind leg. The farrier-sergeant reported that the leg was 
broken in two places, and a committee was assembled on the 
spot, and the horse destroyed on the strength of the ser¬ 
geant’s statement. A short time after this I arrived on the 
ground as a spectator, and on the president of the recent 
committee seeing me he came up and requested that I would 
go and “look at a battery horse which was supposed to have 
broken its leg. 5 ’ I therefore went to the spot pointed out 
(he returning to his troop), and on mv arrival, found much 
to my surprise, a dead horse instead of, as I expected, a 
living one. The farrier-sergeant was there, and pointed out 
to me the situation of the “ two fractures but on examin¬ 
ing the limb I could not detect an v lesion of the kind. This 
opinion 1 communicated to him, and subsequently I reported 
it to the president, and sent to the sergeant, directing him 
to bring the bones for my inspection. His answer, however, 
was that the carcass had been demolished and the limbs 
taken away by the numerous wild dogs and hungry pigs 
which are always wandering about the plains, and thus this 
matter was allowed to drop. I have no doubt, however, that 
the man dissected the leg, and finding he had made a mis¬ 
take, threw away the bones, and told an untruth. 
I was not in professional charge of the battery, although it 
was in our lines, and I had, therefore, no direct authority 
over the sergeant. Is it not strange that a troop of horse 
artillery and a field batter} 7 " of the same regiment should be 
stationed at the same place together, and that the veterinary 
surgeon of the former has, under such circumstances, nothing 
to do with the horses of the latter ? We sadly want a prin¬ 
cipal veterinary surgeon out here, and I doubt not we shall 
