By Harry Schenawolf, author of the Shades of Liberty Series about African American soldiers in the American Revolution. Veterinary medicine owes much to mankind’s infatuation with the horse that helped finance and advance its development from amateur status to scientific discovery. It also benefited from strides in human medicine, in sorts, becoming a sister that was brought along through new methods of exploratory dissection and diagnostic expertise leading to the evolution of medicines and their use in cures. However, schools that trained doctors to treat humans were established long before institutions that advanced the study of animal care. The first schools for vets did not appear until the 18ths century in Europe and not in America until the later part of the 19th century. Before then, animal care had remained in the realm of the amateur. It was considered an expected chore best administrated by the farmer, horse breeder, or often illiterate ‘farriers’ (for horses) or ‘cow leeches’ (for other livestock). These were often local farmers who, after years of experience, decided they could make extra wages by hiring themselves out as ‘experts’ in animal care. Anyone could declare themselves a farrier which too often led to ‘quacks’ and conmen convincing farmers and even noblemen with large stables of horses that they knew best. As to colonial America, the first true vet, an immigrant from Prussia, did not set up shop until 1817. Prior to then, all the needs of livestock was handled by the aforementioned farriers or cow leeches.
Stone Age. During the age of mankind as a hunter and gatherer, they discovered the incredible aid of a domesticated wolf for hunting and safety. When scientists compared the mitochondrial genomes (small rings of DNA that sit outside the main set) of 126 modern dogs and wolves, and 18 fossils, they concluded that dogs were domesticated somewhere in Europe or western Siberia, between 18,800 and 32,100 years ago. So too cattle were domesticated, though later, around 10,500 years ago. This was well within the realm of what we have classified as the stone age that ended with the advent of metalworking technology, around 8,000 years ago.
As mankind emerged from the stone age and domesticated animal life, it naturally fell to shepherds and herdsmen to care for the needs of working dogs and sick livestock. These prehistoric husbandries soon discovered their herds ravaged by diseases which where were not apparent before. They scrambled to figure out why and then to find a cure. As all things which could not be explained, they turned to magic and religion, using talismans, incantations, prayers to gods, and a whole host of barbaric rites to care for their animals.
Ancient Egypt. By 3000 years BC, animal care flourished in ancient Egypt and livestock wealth increased among peasants and landowners. Cattle, sheep, and goats spread out over the land as well as horses and asses which filled the stables. Herdsmen were keen in their never-ending task of tending to their animals needs including constructing shades, assisting with the delivery of calves and foals, milking, as well as isolating the ailing and seeking cures for the sick. In 1889, the English archaeologist Flinders Petrie discovered a papyrus that detailed animal care dating back to 2000 BC in the Ilahun district of the province of Fayyum. The papyrus listed remedies for bulls that suffered from tear duct infections including taurine depression and sadness. Also found were cures for dogs afflicted with internal parasites.
Bible and the Greeks. The bible included dozens of references to animals including their care and concern. Proverb 27:23 recommends ‘know well the condition of your flocks and give attention to your herds.’ In Isaiah 40:11 it is written that ‘He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.’ We know that Moses established a system of meat inspection with is still practiced by the Jewish community in modern packing houses. But it was the Greeks, associating Cheiron the centaur of healing and linked to animal care, who gave us the beginnings of veterinary medicine, having detailed many descriptions of diseases and the care for inflicted animals. Hippocrates (460-327 BC) described hydrothorax in oxen, sheep, and swine and observed the dislocation of the hip joint of cattle following a lean winter. Gen. Xenophon (349- 259 BC) wrote a treatise on horses and horsemanship in which he emphasized diseases and care of the feet.
Aristotle (384-326 BC) outdid them all, earning him what some consider the father of veterinary medicine. In his ‘History of Animals’, he detailed innumerable observations on not just domestic livestock, but all forms of life including their detailed descriptions, movements, habits, and interestingly, made note of animal modification of species hinting at genetic altering practices. In domestic animals he recommended types of feed including what was productive and what to avoid. Care of these animals went into extended explanations including ailments (domestic and wild) in which he diagnosed and gave name to diseases and recommended cures. Pigs suffered from three main diseases: branchos and two others both termed craurus – one with heaviness of the head and the other, a form of uncurable diarrhea – also measles. Dogs suffered three diseases: rabies (which he noted was uncurable and can be transmitted by bite), quinsy, and sore feet. Cattle suffered foot disease and craurus which rots the lungs. He differentiated between pasture and stall horses: the pasture horse having no disease but the foot and the stall horse which suffers several including eileus, tetanus, abscesses, barley-surfeit, nymphia, and heart-ache. He lists the ass as suffering one disease – melis. And of note, he states that the elephant has but one ailment – flatulence. If you like to read what Aristotle wrote, click the link Aristotle History of Animals. For his treatment of diseases, start with number twenty-one.
Origin of Word. The word veterinary can possibly be tranced to two sources. Fourteenth century Verrius Flaccus, gives the verb form as ‘veheri’, to draw, and defines the term in ‘bestia veterinus’ as ‘any animal that works with a yoke.’ Other etymologists give a Celtic ongm from ‘vieh’, meaning cattle, and ‘terrin’, to be sick.
Father of Veterinary Medicine. As to who should be considered the father of veterinarian medicine, some consider Hippocrates and Aristotle as previously mentioned. Many point to the Roman Aelius Galenus or better known as Galen of Pergamon (129 – 216 AD), as not only the father of animal medicine, but all forms of medicine. He was arguably the most accomplished of all medical researchers of antiquity, having influenced the development of several scientific disciplines. This included: anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, neurology, as well as philosophy and logic. He advanced the then current theory of humorism, also called the four humors of black bile, yellow bile, blood, and phlegm which had been described by ancient Greek physicians such as Hippocrates. His theories would dominate and influence western medical science for well over a thousand years and well into the Renaissance of more modern Europe. Throughout, his teachings and advanced studies had also been applied to animals. Still others name late 4th Century Roman horse-breeder Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus, or simply referred to as Vegetius, as the true father of veterinary medicine. He is more known for his treaties on the Roman army however; he wrote a detailed book of veterinary medicine sourced from earlier texts on animal care by Pelagonius and Chiron. In “Digesta Artis Mulomedicinae,” four books on diseases of horses and cattle, he urged the disregard of divine discipline as the cause of diseases and subsequent incantations as the cure. Instead, relying on a more scientific approach to identifying and curing animal diseases.
Dark Ages. In the years that followed the collapse of the Roman Empire, no new literature on animal treatment was written and all developing studies were abandoned. These ‘dark ages’, like the previous Roman and Greek civilizations, forbade dissection and autopsies, but did one better, all literature on the subject was subsequently confiscated and destroyed. Only in Spain, because of their excellent horsemanship and love of the horse, in which keen interest was devoted to horse diseases, was all available literature collected and transcribed into Arabic.
Renaissance. As the name renaissance indicates, a light was cast on animal care to revitalize veterinary studies. Much of veterinary’s earliest studies are due to man’s fascination with the horse. The “Hippiatrica”, by the 10th century, had gained prominence. It is a Byzantine compilation of ancient Greek texts, mainly excerpts, dedicated to the care and healing of the horse. Much of it was probably compiled during the time of the late Roman Empire of around the fifth century by an unknown editor. This and other Arabic translations were available to Jordanus Rufus, a nobleman in the court of Frederick II of Sicily, wrote an influential text on veterinary care entitled “De Medicina Equorum.”
We only know that Rufus was born in the very late 12th or early 13th century and was of noble birth and, like those of money, busied himself training horses from his stables. He soon became focused on their treatment and started studying their diseases. He proved to be a person of considerable experience and knowledge of the treatment of horses and far exceeded any of his successors on the topic for the next four hundred years. He identified and coined a number of diseases whose origin persist to this day. Listed is a short example of some of his chapters: Care and Treatment, Recognition of the parts of the body, the Diseases, and Medicines and Remedies.
By the 1500’s, with the invention of the printing press, the publications of works in all fields, including medicine, exploded. Since the days of Aristotle, there had been no book on the diseases of animals which endeavored to enter at all into the study of their anatomy based on special dissections. This all changed with the ground breaking text published in 1598; “Dell’Anatomia et dell’ Infirmita del Cavallo, ” by Carlo Ruini (1530-1598). A lawyer and senator of Bologna, Italy, from early youth he displayed a great fondness for horses. It was this devotion to horse, including its care that naturally led to a concern for their diseases and cures, that was the reason that Ruini applied himself so diligently into putting his findings into print. The first part of the book is important for it treats of the anatomy of the horse, with numerous and exquisite illustrations that testify to the diligence of the author in dissections. However, scholars have cast doubt as to how much of the text is by Ruini’s hand. Many are of the opinion that some young doctor had either at his own instigation, or incited by Ruini through financial support, studied the anatomy of the horse and drew the illustrations engraved not upon wood, but copper, which could not have been done without Ruini’s wealth to back it up.
Beginning of Veterinary Based on Science. Ruini’s text remained unequaled for nearly two hundred years. During this time, several more texts were written on the subject of horsemanship, however most were written by farriers – those with little or no scientific knowledge of medicine. They had much success in the sale of their texts as they all argued that knowledge of farriery and equine medicine was knowledge that all gentlemen should possess. Books like John Halfpenny’s The Gentleman’s Jockey and Approved Farrier, London, 1672, and E.R. Gent’s The Experience’s Farrier, 1720, were exceedingly popular. However, neither approached the study of veterinary using a scientific approach. Two notable works worth mentioning were George Stubbs (1724-1806) Anatomy of a Horse, and William Gibson’s 1751 two volume text New Treatise on the Diseases of Horses which was original and accurate in its observations. It was not until 1772, when Ruini’s place was in part taken by the truly magnificent Cours d’Hippiatrique of Philippe-Etinenne Lafosse (1738-1820) of Paris.
Lafosse’s text was the very first book with colored plates which appeared upon equine anatomy. He followed his father and grandfather in horse care – however spent a great deal of time at knackers (where dead horses were taken for disposal) doing autopsies and dissecting – all the time taking notes. He was in the military during the Seven Years’ War caring for regimental horses. After the war, he studied medicine in Paris. Though he lectured on horse anatomy and desired to teach, he was overlooked by French nobility. He sold his home in Paris and moved to Russia, returning in time to be embroiled in the French Revolution, taking an radical part politically as well as actively being one of those storming the Bastille. He later barely escaped the scaffold himself and eventually returned to treating the army’s horses. Prior to leaving for Russia, he was keenly critical of the recently established French schools of veterinarian medicine’s coursework and continued his criticism throughout the rest of his life.
His work was divided into three parts and was embellished with a fine copper print of the author. The first part treated the anatomy of the horse, the second of its diseases and their treatment, and the third, of horseshoeing. The work was exquisite and demonstrated why the LaFosse’s, both father (farrier Etienne-Guillaume Lafosse d. 1765) and son, occupied the most prominent positions among the early veterinarians of France. Scholars differ that it was unfortunate for the development of veterinary science that the first schools of veterinary that were established first at Lyons and later at Alfort, France, were not done so under the direction of the younger Lafosse, who had established international claim for his work, but rather than under his great rival, Claude Bourgelat (1712-1779). Bourgelat was a horseman who, in 1751, wrote his own popular text on horsemanship (translated) Elements of the principles of veterinary art, or, new knowledge about medicine and horses. A lawyer by trade with some scientific or medicinal knowledge, Bourgelat was the considered the finest horseman of all France and became the darling child of aristocracy and his political and social skills endeared him to the French scientific community. As such, he was more embedded in the practical approach to horse care at the cost of the scientific investigative spirit and instilled this same approach to the new school’s coursework.
First Schools of Veterinary Medicine. The 18th century experienced many plagues among domestic animals that ravaged throughout Europe. These included: rinderpest, anthrax, blackleg, sheep pox, scabies, glanders, contagious pleuro-pneumonia, strangles, tetanus and wound infections. Economic losses of these plagues were enormous and brought to the public eye the need for a college of Veterinary Medicine. The first as previously mentioned was established by Bourgelat at Lyons, France in 1762. The school had received government aid and opened classes in an old house that had been a hotel. Thirty-eight students constituted an international class that first year; among them were Danes, Swedes, Austrians, Prussians, Sardinians, Swiss, and French. Subjects taught were: Zootomy (animal anatomy studied as a comparative basis), horsemanship, pharmacy, special pathology, surgery, and the principles of sanitation policies. The devastating plagues gave students a chance to show the value of scientific training, though in a crude stage of development. As a result of its apparent value, King Louis XV proclaimed Lyons a Royal School and established a second at Alfort in 1765. Bourgelat remained at the helm, becoming director of all veterinary education in France until his death.
Other schools were established throughout Europe in quick succession:
Dresden 1776 Copenhagen 1777 Hannover 1777 Vienna 1777 Budapest 1786
Berlin 1790 Munich 1790 London 1791 Berne 1808 Zurich 1820
Stockholm 1821 Utrecht 1821 Edinburg 1823 Toulouse 1825
Giessen 1828 Ontario 1862 Glasgow 1862
In the Americas, veterinary colleges were established as well as colleges within fixed universities starting with the New York College of Veterinary Surgeons, 1857. The later half of the 19th century marked the beginning of twenty-eight such veterinarian colleges throughout Canada and the US from New York and New England, Philadelphia and Alabama in the south, and further west in Ohio, Indiana, Chicago, Kansas, and San Francisco by 1899.
Colonial America. In America, during the colonial period, there was no special need for emphasis on veterinary medicine as there was in Europe since the country was sparsely settled and free from epizootics (diseases that are widespread in animal populations) of any magnitude. It wasn’t until the very end of the American Revolution that widespread diseases in domestic animals first appeared, however even then, the first true veterinary physician did not immigrate to the United States until 1817 – nearly fifty years later and the first school nearly forty years later than that in the early 1850’s. Why, one wonders, would it take nearly a hundred years after the first schools for veterinary science were established in Europe for schools to appear in America. Much of it had to do with the continued belief in America that the practical care for domestic animals was knowledge that every farmer or animal breeder was expected to have acquired. It was not a science but just another chore related to the farming profession or in the case of many wealthy horse breeders – their pastime.
From the earliest settlers in the new land, it was expected that domestic animals brought here by these early colonists were treated and cared for by their owners. Later as the number of domestic animals increased, certain individuals who were, or at least thought they were, more proficient in diagnosing and treating the ailments of animals began devoting more of their time to this new profession. There existed at this time two types of animal doctors, the farrier, who dwelt more with the problems of horses, and the cow leech (also called leeches referring to the medical practice of using leeches to bleed their patients – a common practice among period doctors) who treated cows and other forms of livestock. Although the farrier considered himself far superior to the leecher, both usually were of the lowest social caste, ignorant of true medicinal art, illiterate, and untutored in their vocation.
However, we should be cognizant of these colonial practitioners of animal medicine nor judge them on standard practices of veterinary medicine. Their only source of knowledge was inherited from other ferries and cow leeches, often as ignorant as themselves. There were no schools, not even in Europe until the mid-18th century. The only other source were books printed in Europe, but this was of little or no use in America for printing was still in its infancy in the new world and books dealing with veterinary medicine were few or non-existent. Even if a book was available, most could not read or write and of those who could, they could do so only in English, whereas most texts were written in French.
The first major epizootics to appear in America were rabies and a short time later, what was called Texas fever. In 1785, an outbreak of rabies was recorded in Boston. This was the first time that officials were confronted with epizootics in America and since it was soon considered a human medical problem, for it could be passed on to humans after bitten, it gained importance. Texas fever made its appearance as far north as Maryland and Pennsylvania in 1795, however mostly remained a disease that devastated cattle throughout the south. A highly infectious disease, it is transmitted by the cattle tick and caused by a sporozoan of the genus Babesia (B. Bigemina), that multiplies in the blood and destroys red blood cells resulting in death. This was the first time that a region of the United States took action to counter the spread of an animal disease. The North Carolina State Legislature, in 1795, passed an act preventing the driving of cattle from timber of long leaf pine (considered tick country) into or through the state of North Carolina. Several states soon followed with similar acts.
First Trained Vets in America. According to veterinarian Major General Frederick Smith (1857-1929), the first graduate veterinarian to come to America and establish a practice was Charles Clark in 1817. Later, a Prussian graduate, John Rose, came to New York in 1827 and set up a practice. Later, C. C. Grice, R. H. Curtis, A. Lockhart, and C. Pilgrim, all graduates of the London school settled on the eastern coast. According to a 1939 history of veterinary medicine issued by Iowa State University, “Several non-graduates deserving mention were the Saunders in Massachusetts, Dr. Wood in Boston, and the Micheners in Pennsylvania. The works of Youatt, Percivall, and Gamgee served these pioneers. Had the veterinary enterprise been made up entirely of men of this caliber the prestige of veterinary medicine would have been raised instead of lowered in the century to come. As it was, these pioneers made up less than five per cent of the veterinary population and most of them settled in large cities in the East. Ninety Ninety-five per cent of the practitioners were unqualified, they were in the main charlatans, harpies, mountebanks, a preponderant group whose practices were unthinkably barbarous to say the least. Specialization was the rule; some were “horse doctors” and claimed no more than the name implies, some “cow leechers”, who weren’t so rash with their treatment; others like “Cowboy Charlie” traveled, giving free lectures to sell medicine; “horse dentists” were plentiful as were the “gelders”. Surgery and therapeusis of even the qualified was at low ebb and asepsis was undreamed of. Anesthesia was in its experimental stage in human medicine, unknown in veterinary medicine.”
Most of the 1800’s until the 1870’s in America were considered the Dark Ages of veterinary medicine. Even though the value of proper education of veterinary medicine had been proven in Europe by the mid 1700’s, state agencies in the United States continued to conceived the mistaken idea that teaching everyone to treat their own animals would constitute a sufficient means of protecting the livestock industry against the ravages of disease. This all came to a halt after a series of devastating outbreaks starting with the third large animal contaminant, the 1833 hog cholera in the Ohio valley. It ravaged the countryside for the next twenty years with little or no let up. This was followed by the fourth epizootic that was the last straw. Highly contagious pleura-pneumonia of cattle was introduced into America from Germany in 1843. In the next forty-three years the disease spread to ten states. It proved to the scourge that resulted in the organization of the Bureau of animal Industry in 1884.
Contagious pleura-pneumonia of cattle was introduced into this country from Germany in 1843. In the next forty-three years the disease spread to ten states. It was the scourge that resulted in the organization of the Bureau of Animal Industry in 1884. It was from this time on, that state governments finally realized the need to educate a professional population in the skilled art of veterinary science; schools mushroomed throughout the United States and Canada. A complete list of these earlier veterinary schools can be found on the following link of an article sponsored by Iowa State: History of Veterinary Medicine
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SOURCE
Aristotle. The History of Animals Book VIII. Translated by D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/aristotle/histanimals8.html
Bierer, Bert Worman. A Short History of Veterinary Medicine in America. 2012: Literary Licensing, LLC., Whitefish, MT.
Billings, Frank Seaver. The Relation of Animal Diseases to the Public Health: And Their Prevention. 1884: D. Appleton.
Dunlop, Roberrt H., Williams, David Jon. Veterinary Medicine: An Illustrated History. 1996: C. F. Mosby Company, St. Louis, Missouri.
Fischer, Klaus-Dietrich. Ancient Veterinary Medicine: A survey of Greek and Latin sources and Medizinhistorisches Journal Bd. 23, H. 3/4 (1988), pp. 191-209.
History of Veterinary Medicine. “Iowa State University Veterinarian: Vol. 2: Iss. 1, Article 1. Available on-line at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/iowastate_veterinarian/vol2/iss1/1
Noel, James Adams. Pelagonius and Latin Veterinary Terminology in the Roman Empire. Vol. 11 of Studies in ancient Medicine. 1995: Brill.
Veterinary Medicine Between Past, Present and Future. 1990: Egyptian Veterinarians Syndicate. https://paintedlantern.blogspot.com/2010/12/veterinary-medicine-in-ancient-egypt.html