Veterinary Medicine

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

that branch of medical science which embraces the treatment of diseased domestic animals, and the preservation of their health. It has evidently been practiced from the earliest times; and there is every reason to suppose that the study of disease in the inferior animals was applied, on comparative principles, to the treatment of disease in the human subject. For many centuries, the inferior animals alone were used for purposes of scientific dissection. Among the Greeks, the study of the diseases of domestic animals, and of the remedial agents applicable to such diseases, was directly applied to the practice of medicine, and it was compulsory on anyone making a new discovery regarding such curative agents, to divulge it for the public good. Physicians were presumed to be acquainted with veterinary medicine, and Hippocrates, the most celebrated physician of early times, wrote a treatise on the curative treatment of horses. Columella and Vegetius, Latin authors, the latter of whom flourished about A. D. 300, wrote books on the subject, which contain an epitome of the best of all that was previously known. es, however, veterin- In the Middle Ages , ary medicine was utterly neglected, and desolating plagues swept away nearly the entire herds and flocks of the countries they visited, precisely as the great epidemics of the Middle Ages swept away vast numbers of human beings, almost depopulating many of the provinces of Europe. Indeed, cattle Vol. X plagues were not infrequently the forerunners of great epidemics, and though they may have had no connection as cause and effect, they may have had some co-relation, as affecting the food supplies of human beings and ushering in periods of famine, which would give intensity to epidemic diseases. During the 16th century veterinary medicine became again a subject of study, and the Constantine collection of works were translated from the original Greek into Latin by the order of François I., and from the Latin they were soon afterward translated into Italian, French and German. During the 17th century, the more important works which appeared were Fiarchi's Italian treatise on "Horsemanship," and the "Infermita e Suoi Remedii, del Signor Carlo Ruini," published in Venice, in 1618. In 1654 the "Grand Marêschal François" was published; and, toward the close of the century, the elaborate work of Sollysel. In Great Britain, Blundeville and Gervase Markham published works on farriery; and Snape, farrier to Charles II., published an anatomical treatise on the horse, his plates being copied from those of Ruini. The 18th century produced numerous authors on veterinary medicine, more especially in France, an impetus having been given to the study by the establishment in 1761, under royal patronage, Seminary at Lyon of the Veterinary under Professor Bourgelat. In 1766 another school was opened at Alfort, near Charenton; and others were subsequently opened at Strassburg and Montpelier, and in almost every European uropean city of note, as Vienna, Dresden, Leipsic, Berlin, Copenhagen, Prague, Munich, Hanover, Naples, London, etc. In 1754 La Fosse, a contemporary of Bourgelat, published his numerous memoirs in one volume, which was soon afterward translated into most of the European languages. The most celebrated French writers of the beginning of the 19th century were Chabert, Flandrin, Gilbert, Vicq-d'-Azyr, George I., and Huzard. In the reign reign of Georg Sollysel's work was translated from the French into English by Sir William Hope; and about the middle of the 18th century, Gibson who was formerly surgeon to a regiment of cavalry published his treatise on farriery, the best which had then appeared in the English language. The other writers of this period are Bracken, Bartlet, and Osmer, who had been educated as medical practitioners. In 1791 the Veterinary College of London was instituted under the presidency of the Duke of Northumberland. In Queen Victoria's reign a charter was granted to the veterinary body at large, forming a Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, empowered to examine candidates and grant diplomas. In 1819 the first course of lectures on the subject in Scotland was delivered by Mr. Dick, and a systematic course under the auspices of the Highland and Agricultural Society and the Senatus Academicus of Edinburgh At his death, in 1866, Mr. Dick in 1823. bequeathed to the city of Edinburgh his , to be devoted to the teachentire fortune ing and improvement of veterinary medicine. In 1857 Mr. John Gamgee established a new veterinary college in Edinburgh; and since 1861 a veterinary school has been conducted in Glasgow by In the United States James McCall. there are some 22 schools of veterinary medicine, with about 400 instructors and over 3,000 students. Most of these are connected with well-known colleges and universities.