Veterinary Surgeon

Information relating to veterinary surgeons.

General resources

• South Asia Archive & Library Group host a Powerpoint presentation given at their conference by Christopher Gill called "Veterinary Material in the National Library of Scotland’s India Papers Collection - A previously neglected resource for historical research".

• Development of Veterinary Work In India Informative short article held on website of the Indian Academy of Sciences. The article outlines the history of veterinary work in India from 1799 up to the 1930s and mentions the men who played a major role in its expansion.

Training

• The Madras Veterinary Establishment was set up in 1810 and boys from the Military Male Asylum and the Charity School were to be trained in the veterinary art, with the eventual rank of farriers.¹
• There is a British Library catalogue entry IOR/F/4/661/18358 Mar 1821, which appears to be in respect of Bengal: Appointment of J.T. Hodgson as Veterinary Surgeon to the Governor General's Body Guard - he is to select and train eight Assistant Apothecaries as Veterinary Surgeons for the Light Cavalry Regiments. Refer Apothecary - Duties.

Individuals

William Moorcroft

William Moorcroft was the first English Veterinary Surgeon at Pusa. In describing the book Beyond Bokhara: The Life of William Moorcroft, Asian Explorer and Pioneer Veterinary Surgeon 1767-1825 by Garry Alder (1985), Bill Buxton states on his exploration website:

"This is the only biography of William Moorcroft, one of the great early explorers of the region north west of India. He was a veterinarian who came to India in 1808 as Superintendent of East India Company's horses. He traveled widely, ostensibly in search of breeding stock, but this was clearly more of a pretext than fact. He undertook a journey into western Tibet in 1812, across the Garhwal Himalaya to Lake Manasarowar, Mount Kailas region, the Rakas Tal, and Gartok. Moorcroft and Hearsey were the first Englishmen in the area.
"His next major trip was to Bokhara. He left British territory in 1820, for a trip that would last until 1825. Due to civil unrest in Afghanistan, he decided to go via Ladakh and Chinese Turkistan. He waited in Leh for permission from Kashgar, during which time he traveled and explored the greater part of Ladakh, the Karakoram Pass, the head-waters of the Yarkand River, the Western Himalaya, the Karakoram and the NW Frontier. In 1824, after deciding that permission would never come , he decided to go via Afghanistan, regardless of the civil conflict there. Traveled through Kashmir and Punjab, over the Khyber Pass, across the Oxus, and got to Bokhara. He died during the return trip."²

Elsewhere on his site, Buxton gives a short, but fuller biography of Moorcroft, including a bibliography. On the India List a post and thread mention the EIC horse stud at Pusa where Moorcroft was posted. Refer Ordnance.

Historical books available online include Travels in the Himalayan provinces of Hindustan and the Panjab, in Ladakh and Kashmir, in Peshawar, Kabul, Kunduz, and Bokhara from 1819 to 1825 by William Moorcroft and George Trebeck Volume 1, Volume 2 (Google Books).

References

1. Samuel, E., Asiatic annual register Vol 12 (London: 1812) p.139
2. Buxton, Bill "Books on History and Exploration: Annotated Bibliography". Retrieved December 11th, 2009.