VETERINARY MEDICINE, that branch of medical science which em braces the treatment of diseased do mestic 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 ani mals was applied, on comparative prin ciples, 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 medi cine, 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 medi cine, and Hippocrates, the most cele brated 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 sub ject, which contain an epitome of the best of all that was previously known. In the Middle Ages, however, veterin 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 4 Vol. X plagues were not infrequently the fore runners 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 Fran cois 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 Mareschal Francois" was published; and, toward the close of the century, the elab orate work of Sollysel. In Great Britain, Blundeville and Gervase Mark ham 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 es pecially in France, an impetus having been given to the study by the establish ment in 1761, under royal patronage, of the Veterinary Seminary at Lyon under Professor Bourgelat. In 1766 another school was opened at Alfort, near Charenton; and others were subse quently opened at Strassburg and Mont pelier, and in almost every European 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 trans lated into most of the European lan guages.
The most celebrated French writers of the beginning of the 19th century were Chabert, Flandrin; Gilbert, Vicq-d'-Azyr, and Huzard. In the reign of George I., 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 sur geon to a regiment of published his treatise on farriery, the Jest which had then appeared in the English lan guage. The other writers of this period are Bracken, Bartlet, and Osmer, who had been educated as medical practi tioners.
In 1791 the Veterinary College of Lon don was instituted under the presidency of the Duke of Northumberland. In Queen Vi-toria'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 system atic course under the auspices of the Highland and Agricultural Society and the Senatus Academicus of Edinburgh in 1823. At his death, in 1866, Mr. 'Dick bequeathed to the city of Edinburgh his entire fortune, to be devoted to the teach ing and improvement of veterinary medi cine. In 1857 Mr. John Gamgee estab lished a new veterinary college in Edin burgh; and since 1861 a veterinary school has been conducted in Glasgow by James McCall. In the United States 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.