Medical History of British India

Currently our Digital Library team are working on exporting around 40,000 digital pages (146 volumes) of Veterinary medicine reports from British India c.1850-1960.

The reports cover Veterinary diseases – mainly surra and rinderpest - and the care of working animals such as camels and elephants. Horse breeding and procurement is also detailed. There are reports from Veterinary colleges and laboratories in India, with the first reports from the Bombay Veterinary College, established in 1886. The College’s website gives a good overview of its history and features people who appear in the Veterinary volumes:

http://www.mafsu.in/bvc/bvccollege/bvc.html

There are also many reports from the Civil Veterinary Department  from regions all over India. The CVD was established to control disease and improve breeding of civil stock, and the reports show the impact of the work on local communities.

Historian Chris Gill is writing a PhD dissertation based on the material and has kindly written some introductory text to it for the website.

I will then inspect the test site before these reports can be added to the main Medical History of British India website.

So watch this space for further news!

(photo is digital object number 75190959 and is from Treatise on elephants by G.H. Evans, 1901, NLS shelfmark IP/16/VB.3)