Sunday, March the 14th, 2004
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“What in the name of heaven is Kurt Chodd prattling on about?” asks reader P. N. Cowper, “Contrary to the absurd waiting room scene in The Administration Of Lighthouses (9th March), vets do not as a rule tend to the kinds of animals listed there. This lack of verisimilitude ruined the lecture for me, and I am sure for many other readers.” Well: Mr or Ms Cowper is clearly not familiar with James Forbes' Oriental Memoirs (1813-15), where we find this:
“The Banian hospital at Surat is a most remarkable institution; it consists of a large plot of ground, enclosed with high walls, divided into several courts or wards, for the accommodation of animals; in sickness they are attended with the tenderest care, and find a peaceful asylum for the infirmities of age. At my visit, the hospital contained horses, mules, oxen, sheep, goats, monkeys, poultry, pigeons, and a variety of birds, with an aged tortoise, who was known to have been there for seventy-five years. The most extraordinary ward was that appropriated to rats, mice, bugs, and other noxious vermin. The overseers of the hospital frequently hire beggars from the streets, for a stipulated sum, to pass a night among the fleas, lice, and bugs, on the express condition of suffering them to enjoy their feast without molestation.”