John Cammack, of Boston, Lincolnshire, qualified as a member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (MRCVS)at the Royal (Dick) Veterinary College in Edinburgh in April 1872. He practiced in Staffordshire, England, until at least March 1878 and published "Clinical notes on open joints and bursae" in The Veterinary Journal and Annals of Comparative Pathology (1878). That same year he came to Cape Town and as far as is known was the first qualified veterinary surgeon in private practice at the Cape of Good Hope. He practiced in Kimberley until at least November 1882.
In August 1880 Cammack published an article, "Hydrate of chloral in veterinary practice", in the (British) Veterinary Journal. The manuscript had been submitted from Cape Town. He is credited with being the first person, in 1884, to recommend the preventive treatment of lamsiekte (botulism) by feeding livestock bones or bone ash. The recommendation was based on tests he carried out with bone ash near Kimberley, which showed it to be effective in halting the disease. Later he contributed an item with the rather obscure title "A periscope from the pastoral plane" to the South African Agriculturalists' Almanac for 1889.
In September 1890 Cammack was appointed by S. Wiltshire*, principle veterinary surgeon of Natal, as deputy inspector of cattle in Durban. However, by January 1892 he was practicing in Johannesburg where he set up the Transvaal Veterinary Hospital and became known for his treatment of horse sickness. In 1901, during the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) he applied for the post of veterinary surgeon to the Utrecht-Vryheid Mounted Police. He remained in Johannesburg and died in the city in 1911, at the age of 67 years.
