A Brief History of Veterinary Profession

A Brief History of Veterinary Profession

The English word ‘veterinarian’ as defining one who provides medical care to animals, comes from the Latin verb veheri meaning “to draw” (as in “pull”) and was first applied to those who cared for “any animal that works with a yoke” – cattle or horses – in ancient Rome (Guthrie, 1).

The association of the term “veterinary medicine” with Rome has encouraged a tendency to begin any discussion of the history of the practice either with the Roman physician Galen (l. 129-216 CE), the earlier Greek “Father of Medicine” Hippocrates (l. c. 460 – c. 379 BCE), or the writer Vegetius (l. late 4th or 5th century CE) when, in fact, the practice was already well-established by the time they lived.

The word ‘veterinarian’ is derived from the Latin ‘veterinum’ which means ‘beast of burden’ and ‘veterinarius’ which means ‘of or having to do with beasts of burden’. Its first known use as animal doctor dates to 1646 (Merriam-Webster) while the adjective ‘veterinary’ was first used in 1791.

The history of veterinary medicine has seen tremendous change over the past 100 years. It’s hard for us to remember that there was a time, not that long ago, when cats, dogs, rabbits, and other domestic animals weren’t cared for by a veterinarian.

In fact, it wasn’t until the early 1900s that pets began to more commonly receive medical care. Horses that were the primary focus of veterinary medical care, though, as they also served a function as transportation.

It is as impossible to say when or where veterinary medicine began as it is to definitively claim where or when animal husbandry was first established and dogs first domesticated. Most likely, some form of veterinary medicine followed quickly upon the earliest domestication of animals which, at the latest, is usually dated to 12,000-10,000 BCE though most accounts – especially concerning the dog – date this event much earlier.

GREEK & ROMAN WRITERS OFTEN REFERRED TO AS THE “FATHER OF VETERINARY MEDICINE” ONLY CONTRIBUTED TO WHAT HAD ALREADY BEEN ESTABLISHED.

What is possible, however, is to chart a rough evolution of veterinary practice in ancient civilizations such as China, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and India long before it arrived in Greece and Rome from whence it would later be developed throughout Europe.

It is almost a certainty that physicians of Asia and the Near East were practicing veterinary medicine long before the written records which attest to such practice were created, but the accounts which do exist make it clear that the Greek and Roman writers frequently associated with the epithet “Father of Veterinary Medicine” actually only contributed to what had already been established.

Enlightenment writers of the 18th century CE had no knowledge of contributions to the field prior to the Greeks and Romans and so, naturally, began their treatments of the subject with those civilizations; scholarship since then has made it clear that writers such as Hippocrates and Vegetius were later contributors, not pioneers, in veterinary medicine.

Chinese Mythological Origin & Practice

As noted, it is not possible to definitively state where veterinary medicine was first practiced but the earliest documented evidence comes from China. One of the most popular myths of ancient China concerns the god Fuxi (also given as Fu-Hsi, Fu-Shi) and his sister-wife Nuwa who created humanity and bestowed upon them the gifts of civilization. Fuxi is known as “the ox-tamer” for his gift of domesticating animals and clear evidence of domestication was already long established by the time Banpo Village was thriving between 4500-3750 BCE.

According to the myth (as told in the work Classic of Mountains and Seas c. 2600 BCE but thought to have existed orally much earlier), Nuwa created each human being by hand but found the process tiring, as it seemed endless, and so established marriage as a means by which humans could reproduce themselves. After that was taken care of, however, it became clear that the creatures could not survive on their own as they had no idea how to take care of, clothe, or feed themselves. Fuxi taught people how to fish, hunt, write, plant and harvest crops, foretell the future through divination and, finally, domesticate the animals of the wild so they would not have to spend so much time hunting for them.

After domesticating animals, Fuxi is said to have taught humans how to care for them. The earliest examples of veterinary medicine in China have to do with the care of cattle and horses. Doctors known as “horse priests” used acupuncture to successfully treat lame or colic horses c. 3000 BCE. Veterinary practice developed from that point to include other animals and the use of medicinal herbs, incantations, and various procedures in the treatment of illness and injury.

Mesopotamian Practice

In Mesopotamia, veterinarians were also already established by 3000 BCE and the practice was also associated with the divine. The goddess of health and healing was Gula (also given as Ninkarrak and Ninisinna, closely associated with dogs and their protective/healing aspects) who instituted the art of medicine with her consort Pabilsag, her sons Damu and Ninazu, and her daughter Gunurra. Of her children, the most influential was Ninazu – associated with serpents (symbols of transformation), healing, and the underworld – whose symbol was the staff of intertwining serpents, later associated with Hippocrates and, today, the symbol of the medical profession.

The two primary types of doctors in Mesopotamia were the Asu (a medical doctor who treated illness or injury based on observation and physical treatment of symptoms) and the Asipu (what one today would call a “faith healer” who relied on magical incantations, prayers, and herbs) and both of these types could be veterinarians. There was no distinction between the two – one was not thought to be any more effective or legitimate than the other – and so both “natural” and “supernatural” treatment of illness was practiced together.

The first veterinarian known by name is the Sumerian doctor Urlugaledinna who served under Ur-Ningirsu (r. 2121-2118 BCE), king of Lagash, son and successor of the great king Gudea (r. 2141-2122 BCE). According to Dr. Saadi F. Al-Samarrai:[Urlugaledinna] gave a particular attention to an apparatus consisting of two metal handles attached to two twisted cords with two shafts or lamina which bend upwards at their tips representing a kind of forceps used by Sumerian obstetricians in difficult live births. It proves also that surgical instruments were used for opening abscesses and other minor surgical operations [along with] needles and threads for suturing. (129)

Urlugaledinna’s cylinder seal – essentially his personal identification – shows this pair of tongs along with Ninazu’s staff of the intertwined serpents and he is more closely associated with veterinarian practice than work with humans though no details as to how his practice developed are available. This is fairly common in Mesopotamian texts which often take for granted an audience’s knowledge of the subject. As the Orientalist Samuel Noah Kramer points out:

There were also veterinarians known as “the doctor of the oxen” or “the doctor of the donkeys”; but they are only mentioned in the lexical texts and nothing else is known about them as yet. (Sumerians, 99)

Whatever these early veterinarians did, they had established their practices well enough to be able to define animal-related disease and treatment by the time the law code of Eshnunna was written c. 1930 BCE. The Code of Eshnunna identifies rabies, its effects, and sets the fine to be paid by the owner of a rabid dog who bites someone. The Code of Hammurabi (c. 1754 BCE) recognizes veterinarians as a separate class of medical doctor and sets the fees they are to be paid; clearly establishing veterinary care as a respectable profession.

Egyptian Codification

By the time the Code of Hammurabi was engraved at Babylon, veterinarians in Egypt were already long recognized for their skill and had already produced a work on veterinary science, known today as the Kahun Papyri. Dated to the period of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt (2040-1782 BCE), and specifically to the reign of Amenemhat III (c. 1860 – c. 1814 BCE), the Kahun Papyri contains texts on a number of different subjects ranging from festivals to be held to gynecological issues and treatments, to veterinary practice and diagnoses of illness.

It should come as no surprise that veterinary science would have developed fully in ancient Egypt as the culture placed a high value on animals of all kinds. Although the culture is most closely associated with the veneration of cats, all life was considered sacred, the Egyptian diet was almost wholly vegetarian, and animals were honored through identification with the gods of the land.

Scholar Conni Lord notes how, “as an agricultural society, humans and animals in ancient Egypt would have regularly shared the same space, often to the detriment of each other” (141). This close contact would have necessitated a human response to animal disease in any culture, prompted simply by the instinct of self-preservation, but would have been acted on earlier and more proactively by the Egyptians with their high regard for animals. Some scholars, in fact, have argued that veterinarian practice in Egypt is among the earliest in the world, dating back at least to the time of the Old Kingdom (c. 2613-2181 BCE) if not earlier. Lord comments:

Animals, like their human carers, would have displayed a high incidence of parasitic disease while the harsh glare of the Egyptian sun and frequent dust storms must have led to a high occurrence of both human and animal eye disease. The environmental conditions of ancient Egypt would have facilitated animal and human disease patterns.

Among these diseases was African Trypanosomiasis and, especially, nagana (animal trypanosomiasis) which was spread by the bite of the tsetse fly. Infected flies which bit animals would then spread the disease to humans, causing the “sleeping sickness” which, if left untreated, eventually led to death.

The Kahun Papyrus specifically deals with nagana (given as ushau in the text), prescribes remedies, and specifically mentions the importance of washing one’s hands before, during, and after treating an infected animal. The Kahun text deals primarily with the treatment of cattle but birds, dogs, and fish – all three kept as pets – are also mentioned.

Indian Advances

Whether Egyptian veterinary science traveled to India or developed there independently is unknown but by the time of the Vedic Period (c. 1500-500 BCE), veterinarians were an established and respected profession in the region. According to scholar R. Somvanshi:

It is believed that the religious priests, who had the responsibility of maintaining cattle, were the first animal healers or veterinarians. A number of Vedic hymns indicate medicinal values of the herbs and it is likely these priests were also apt to [use] their medical knowledge to keep cattle free from ailments.

Sushruta Samhita

 

The great physician Sushruta (l. c. 7th or 6th century BCE), known as the “Father of Indian Medicine” and “Father of Plastic Surgery”, developed medical techniques which were used for treating humans as well as animals. His work, Sushruta Samhita (Sushruta’s Compendium) is considered the oldest text on plastic surgery in the world, a classic of Ayurvedic Medicine, and the basis for veterinarian practice in India. Somvanshi writes:

Animals received good medical care in ancient India. Physicians treating human beings were also trained in the care of animals. Indian medical treatises like Charaka Samhita, Sushruta Samhita, and Harita Samhita contain chapters or references about care of diseased as well as healthy animals. There were, however, physicians who specialized only in the care of animals or in one class of animals only; the greatest of them was Shalihotra, first known veterinarian of the world and the father of Indian veterinarian sciences.

Shalihotra (l. c. 3rd century BCE) was a physician who dedicated himself solely to the care of animals. His work, the Shalihotra Samhita, dealing with veterinary science, is based on Sushruta’s earlier work on human anatomy, physiology, and surgical techniques; these were adapted for the care of animals. By the time of the great king Ashoka (r. c. 268 – c. 232 BCE), the first veterinary hospital in the world was established in India with its underlying vision based on the work of Shalihotra.

Greek & Roman Developments

HIPPOCRATES EMPHASIZED A COMPLETELY EMPIRICAL APPROACH TO DIAGNOSING & TREATING BOTH HUMANS & ANIMALS.

The Greeks follow the same paradigm as other civilizations in, no doubt, developing some form of veterinary science shortly after the domestication of animals but one of the most comprehensive treatments of the subject comes from Hippocrates who emphasized a completely empirical approach to diagnosing and treating both humans and animals.

Hippocrates was the first Greek healer to maintain that illness was caused by environmental factors, diet, and lifestyle and was not a punishment from the gods nor an infliction caused by evil spirits or the restless dead. He was not, however, the first in history to make this claim as it was suggested much earlier by the Egyptian polymath Imhotep (l. c. 2667-2600 BCE) and later by Sushruta and Shalihotra in India.

Hippocrates suggested diet as one of the most important aspects of maintaining health, in humans or animals, as well as regular exercise, sunlight, massage, relaxation, and elevation of one’s mood, aromatherapy, and regular baths. Although his work focused on human health, it also extended to the welfare of animals. By 130 BCE, a man named Metrodorus of Lamia (in Thessaly) was famous for his skill in healing animals based on Hippocrates’ work. He was especially known for his work with horses and was well respected as a veterinary surgeon.

There is no doubt that Greek medical practices were adopted by the Romans and, most famously, by Galen who recognized the similarity in human and animal physiology. He was able to treat his patients as well as he did through his knowledge of anatomy derived from his work with animals. He correctly assumed that what was harmful to an animal would be equally so to a human and, conversely, what would encourage health in the one would most likely do so in the other.

Even so, Galen’s work with animals is usually eclipsed by that of the Roman writer Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus (best known simply as Vegetius) whose Guide to Veterinary Medicine (Digesta Artis Mulomedicinae) became the standard reference work for those working in the veterinary field. Nothing is known of Vegetius outside of his works which deal with diseases and treatment of horses and cattle.

He had clearly read Hippocrates as he insisted on the same basic understanding a veterinarian should have, prior to treating a patient, that disease was naturally occurring and was not caused by divine or supernatural influences. His work has led many through the centuries to consider him, often above other Roman or Greek writers, as the “Father of Veterinary Medicine” for the scope of his work and its influence on the development of veterinary science.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE, and the rise of Christianity, prior knowledge of veterinary science was lost. Dr. Earl Guthrie comments:

The Church forbade dissection and autopsies and confiscated and destroyed much of the literature on the subject of Veterinary Medicine. During this time no new literature was written. The only work that was done was by the Arabs in Spain. Because of their love of the horse and excellent horsemanship, they were interested in the diseases of the horse. (6)

The lack of interest in veterinary medicine stemmed from the medieval Church‘s insistence that animals had no immortal soul and so were not worthy of medical treatment. If one’s pet cat or dog died, according to the view of the Church, it was of as little consequence as the death of a fly or flea. It was not until the late 12th and early 13th centuries that Europeans began to again pay attention to the health of animals as it affected human wellbeing. Even so, this interest was primarily focused on the health of horses and cattle, the one used in warfare and for transport, and the other for food and agricultural endeavors. The health of an animal for its own sake would not become a focus until much later.

It was not until the Age of Enlightenment (c. 1715-1789) that veterinary medicine would again be regarded with any serious interest. Those who wrote on the subject, however, had no knowledge of the contributions of the Chinese, Sumerians, Indians, Egyptians, or others and believed the works of the Greeks and Romans to be the earliest in the field. It was natural, therefore, that Hippocrates, Galen, and Vegetius should be the ones whose work informed the first veterinary schools of Europe.

The first veterinary educational institute in Europe was founded in France in 1762 by the veterinary surgeon Claude Bourgelat (l. 1712-1779) as a response to the massive deaths of cattle due to the plague. The students at Bourgelat’s school made such impressive strides in research, diagnosis, and treatment, that the French king Louis XV (r. 1715-1774) established a Royal School of veterinarian medicine in 1765 and other schools would follow in other European countries through 1791 and up through 1862 with the first veterinary school in the United States – the Veterinary College of Philadelphia – established in 1852.

Bourgelat is sometimes cited as the “Father of Veterinary Medicine” for founding his school but this claim, still appearing in the present day, ignores the establishment of the veterinary college in India under Ashoka and the work of the Egyptian physicians who created the Kahun text. The most recent “Father of Veterinary Medicine” is the well-known American physician James Harlan Steele (l. 1913-2013) who is, justly, hailed for elevating public awareness of the care and safety of animals.

Although Dr. Steele’s accomplishments in the field are admirable, he – like other Western physicians before him referenced as “firsts” in the discipline – is by no means the first. The actual “Father of Veterinary Medicine” – or “mother” for that matter – may never be known but the practice has a much longer, and grander, history than is generally assumed.

 

The Early Roots Of Veterinary Medicine

The first known veterinary practice came into being in 9,000 BC in the Middle East. Sheep herders used rudimentary medical skills to treat their animals, which included the dogs that watched over their herds. Thousands of years later, in Egypt between 4,000 – 3,000 BC, medical treatment of animals became more common, but was still largely undeveloped. Ancient humans began domesticating cats, fowl, and dogs, and their owners considered them as members of their household–like many of us do today.

In approximately 1,900 BC, someone captured the first written accounts of veterinary medicine in four sacred Hindu texts. Within these texts, two distinct writings outlined the fields of human and animal medicine. Millennia later, in 1850, archaeologists discovered fragments of an ancient veterinary medical textbook made of papyrus. This text covers diseases relating to birds, cattle, dogs, and fish. Horses were the primary focus of ancient medical care as they were economically important for transportation, agriculture, and trade.

The Last Few Centuries Of Veterinary History

In the 1760s, Claude Bourgelat established the first school of veterinary medicine in Lyon, France. Popular modern thought is that this was the founding of veterinary medicine, despite some level of animal medicine predating 9,000 BC. With the opening of the school in France, the scientific study of veterinary medicine was officially born.

As human medicine flourished and progressed through the last few centuries, so did veterinary medicine. In the 1700 and 1800s, we discovered treatments for cholera, Typhoid fever, and tuberculosis. We could then apply those treatments to protecting farm animals from these same deadly diseases. In Britain, the field of veterinary medicine had its roots in the Odiham Agricultural Society. The Society was the first to apply scientific principles to the treatment of animals. From there, another institution was born, the London Veterinary College, in 1791.

In America in 1863, the American Veterinary Medical Association came into being as a way to promote the field. Its purpose was to oversee the advancement of veterinary medicine and its practitioners. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) added a Veterinary Medical Branch in 1965 to oversee veterinary pharmaceuticals. It later became the Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM). The work of the CVM is still essential in that it oversees regulations relating to food, medicine, and other products for animals.

The Rise Of Technology

Despite these advancements, only in the past 30 years has there been a huge shift in veterinary medicine. We’ve moved away from a focus on medical care only for livestock. Veterinarians opened thousands of animal hospitals devoted to the care of cats and dogs and other small pets. These small, furry creatures have moved into our homes and hearts and have family status.

Advancements in veterinary technology and diagnostics continue to improve our ability to detect diseases early. This motivated regular wellness exams to catch help prevent disease or detect it early. Wellness and preventive care allows us to give our pets a better chance of good health and a higher quality of life. Using tools like digital radiology, advanced diagnostic and surgical equipment, and pharmaceuticals, we are better equipped to successfully treat them and keep them living longer.

Attitudes about animals and their status have also prompted changes in how we view wellness care. It now includes things such as dental cleanings, grooming, and alternative treatments like massage and acupuncture. Thirty years ago, the only veterinary equipment for diagnosis was the x-ray. We now have digital x-ray, ultrasound, MRI, advanced laboratory testing, laparoscopic technology, and more.

Anesthesia and anesthetic monitoring for animals has also made leaps and bounds, making surgery safer and more effective for our pets. With a better understanding of animal pain, we are able to manage pain and discomfort in our pets with new medications and alternative therapies. New treatments for cancer mean we can frequently give pet owners much more time with their pets, and give the pets a good quality of life during those extra months or years.

Along with these medical changes, technology now enables us to communicate with our patients in ways that increase speed, convenience, and efficiency. Texting, online booking, apps–we’re much more connected. There is no aspect of veterinary medicine or care that has not changed. The use of new technologies continues to  increase the speed of change. Those changes make it possible for us to care for our animal companions with increasing success.

Different civilisations of the world have their own veterinary histories but the origins of the modern veterinary profession lies in the eighteenth century in what became known as “The Age of Enlightenment”. This was an intellectual movement, mainly in France, Britain and Germany, which advocated freedom, democracy and reason as the primary values of society so that reason and science came to replace religion and magic as the basis for understanding the natural world. Politically, it was a time of revolutions, turmoil and the overturning of established traditions. It promulgated the ‘Sovereignty of Knowledge’ with a contemporary stress on education. There was a new regard for animals, anticipating the rise of Darwinism, and a scientific approach to their diseases that was a part of the rise of comparative medicine.

Initially the veterinary profession in Europe was centred on the horse, influenced by the needs of the Army. The horse remained the focus for many years but, over time, the interests of the profession spread to cattle and other livestock, then to dogs and now to companion and exotic animals.

ANCIENT HISTORY

Without attempting to restyle ours as the “oldest profession”, the earliest documented reference to veterinary medicine I have identified are inscribed on the tablets of the Sumerian civilisation, the first human civilisation (now Iran, Syria, and Turkey). These refer to ‘Doctors of Oxen’ or ‘Doctors of Asses’ – definitely early specialisation. (Sitchin, 1976)

The origins of the Sumerians is not known (Caves in the Zagros mountains? The steppes of central Asia? Outer space?), but somewhere around 8,000 BC people in south-west Asia established the concept of agriculture and slowly started to domesticate animals for both food and to assist in farming.

Settled agriculture made it possible for humans to stay in the same place for a longer period of time without depending on hunting, leading to the creation of more extensive urban development.

Historically, Mesopotamia has been identified as ‘the cradle of civilization’ and ‘the birthplace of agriculture’ plus countless indispensable inventions and discoveries including the wheel, chariot and plough as farmers developed irrigation and novel farming practices between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers – the Fertile Crescent. However, the recent discovery of dam-work and irrigation systems in southern China dating from the same period, and of equal skill and complexity, obviously throws new beams of light on the origins of civilisation and, perhaps, the origins of the veterinary profession.

The provision of specialist care for animals is probably almost as ancient as their domestication and, from this time onwards, there are references to “veterinarians” and veterinary activities throughout their literature. Model livers have been found at various early Mesopotamian sites and, given the importance of animal dissections for soothsaying plus the value of animals as goods and chattels, it is likely that animal doctors existed from these early days of agriculture and that both medical and veterinary anatomy were well advanced.

Hundreds of Akkadian texts use Sumerian medical terms and phrases. The Mesopotamian library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh included a medical section with texts divided into three groups – bultitu (therapy), shipir bel imti (surgery) and urti masmashshe (commands and incantations).

Stone knives and bamboo or bone needles used as healing instruments have been excavated in China indicating that acupuncture was practised in Ancient China in the Paleolithic period, more than 10,000 years ago although its earliest use in animals is not yet identified. However, archaeological evidence indicates that Chinese science was revolutionised during the period of Huang Di, the Yellow Emperor (2,697-2,597 BC).

The first veterinary individual named is Urlugaledinna, who lived in 3,000 BC and was a doctor and an ‘expert in healing animals’. A very early cylinder seal found at Lagash belonged to him and showed a pair of surgical tongs and a serpent on a tree. (Sitchin, 1976)

Recorded techniques used in those early times included washing and cleaning, soaking in baths of hot water and mineral solvents, applications of vegetable derivatives and rubbing with petroleum products. If taken by mouth, powders were mixed with wine, beer or honey; different solvents were used for enemas. Sumerian medical texts even suggest that people were subjected to radiation (Sitchin, 1976, p36). Some skulls in cemeteries dated to that era have been found with unmistakeable signs of healed brain surgery.

The earliest surviving book of Chinese medicine, the Huang Di Nei Jing (The Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor) was written around 305-204 BC and refers to human mange and ocular worms in horses with later veterinary texts clearly identifying other known diseases. (Blancou, 2000)

The Ancient Egyptians (unlike their modern-day successors) were particularly noted for their attachment to the animal kingdom. The Egyptian Papyri of Kahun (discovered by Flinders Petrie in 1889) date to about 1825 BC, the reign of Amenemhat III, and contain a specific veterinary papyrus. This is the oldest surviving veterinary text from any civilisation.

The Shalihotra Samhita, dating from Emperor Ashoka, approx. 250 BC, is an early Indian veterinary reference written on stone pillars and cave walls round India. According to his edicts, Ashoka took great care of the welfare of his subjects (human and animal) – ”Everywhere King Piyadasi (Asoka) made two kinds of medicine available, medicine for people and medicine for animals. Where there were no healing herbs for people and animals, he ordered that they be bought and planted.” One 2,000 year-old Indian Sanskrit treatise (Susrutasamhita) refers to rabies while another (Carakasamhita) deals with diseases of elephants, camels, cattle and others while yet another (Asvayurveda-siddhanta), attributed to Salihotra, deals with falcons, elephants and horses. (Blancou, 2000)

The Byzantine and Roman civilizations created large repositories of veterinary knowledge – much of it shared between texts – by authors such as Apsyrtus (150 – 250 AD) a military veterinarian sometimes referred to as ‘the father of the veterinary art of the present day’, Aristotle (384 – 322BC) and Hippocrates (460 – 377 BC).

Chiron the veterinarian (contemporary with Apsyrtus) compiled works only discovered in 1885 and should not to be confused with Chiron the Centaur – a mythical figure from the Trojan War (possibly 12^th Century BC) – even though the centaur (half-man and half-horse) is frequently used to identify the veterinary profession in modern times.

THE MIDDLE AGES

Arabic veterinary tradition of Bayṭara, or Shiyāt al-Khayl, originates with the treatise Kitāb al-Furūsiyya wa ’Al-Bayṭara (”Book of Horsemanship and Hippiatry”) by Ibn Akhī Hizām (late 9th century). Ibn Akhī Hizām was stable master to the Abbasid caliph Al-Mu’tadid (reigned 892–902). The Arabic literary tradition of veterinary medicine (hippiatry) and horsemanship (furūsiyya), was adopted wholesale from Byzantine Greek sources in the 9th and 10th centuries, notably Hippiatrica, a Byzantine compilation of hippiatrics (treatment of disease in horses), dated to the 5th or 6th century.

The discipline reached its peak in Mamluk Egypt during the 14th century, by which time furūsiyya had become increasingly detached from its origins in Byzantine veterinary medicine and more focussed on military arts. Al-Furūsiyya (written about. 1350) identifies four basic categories – horsemanship (including veterinary aspects of care and proper riding techniques), archery, charging with the lance and swordsmanship.

In Western Europe, the specialist care of livestock fell to stockmen, such as shepherds and swineherds, and with crafts such as farriery. This last has a distinguished history, officially recognised in England as early as 1346.

According to western perspectives, those carers who sought to cure animals or ward-off their ailments, did so on the basis of a mixture of empirical practice (based on observation plus trial and-error learning) and magic. This last was what distinguished such carers from the veterinary surgeon when the latter appeared.

The use of the European medical leech Hirudo medicinalis (and some other leech species) in treatment has been traced back 2,500 years to ancient India where it is explained in ancient Ayurvedic texts. In ancient Greece it was practised according to the humoral theory which proposed that good health was guaranteed when the human body’s four ”humours” — blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile — were in balance. Records of this theory were found in the Greek philosopher Hippocrates’ collection in the fifth century BC.

Bloodletting with leeches continued well into the 18th and 19th centuries in both Europe and North America. Leeches made a small-scale comeback in the 1980s being used medically in procedures such as the reattachment of body parts plus reconstructive and plastic surgeries when problematic venous congestion can arise due to inefficient venous drainage. It is also used in treating osteoarthritis in Germany. This author found leeches for sale in the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul in 2010. A large jar of them – perhaps 250 as an estimate – were available for home use – “buy as many as you want” so perhaps the practice has never ceased.

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MODERN VETERINARY PROFESSION

The first attempts to organize and regulate the practice of treating animals in the western world tended to focus on horses because of their economic significance. In the Middle Ages, farriers combined their work in horseshoeing with the more general task of ”horse doctoring”.

In 1356, the Lord Mayor of London, concerned at the poor standard of care given to horses in the city, requested that all farriers operating within a seven-mile radius of the City of London form a ”fellowship” to regulate and improve their practices. This ultimately led to the establishment of the Worshipful Company of Farriers in 1605.

Meanwhile, Carlo Ruini’s book Anatomia del Cavallo, (Anatomy of the Horse) had been published in 1598 in Italy, two months after his death. It was the first comprehensive treatise on the anatomy of a non-human species.

After witnessing the devastation being caused by cattle plague (Rinderpest) to the French herds, Claude Bourgelat, a French barrister, devoted his time to seeking out a remedy.

This led to France becoming the first country where the teaching of veterinary medicine became institutionalised with their first veterinary college being founded in Lyon, France in 1761. From this establishment Bourgelat dispatched students to combat the disease. “In a short time, the plague was stayed and the health of stock restored, through the assistance rendered to agriculture by veterinary science and art.” This can be identified as the beginning of the veterinary profession with Bourgelat considered the founder of scientific veterinary medicine. (RCVS, 2018)

By his willingness to provide instruction to blacksmiths, who were until then the only people to treat diseases of domestic animals, Bourgelat was at the birth of the training of veterinarians in France. His school moved to its current location in Paris in 1766, 23 years before the French Revolution.

In the UK, the Odiham Agricultural Society was founded on May 16^th, 1783 at the George Inn in Hampshire, England, as a “society for the encouraging of Agricultural and Industry in their town and neighbourhood to promote agriculture and industry” (Pugh, 1962). As a result, it played an important role in the foundation of the veterinary profession in Britain. The Society had 47 members initially, drawn from ‘Gentlemen of Rank, Fortune and Ingenuity’ plus some ‘intelligent farmers’. One founding member, Thomas Burgess, son of a grocer went on to become Bishop of St David’s and, later, Salisbury. His interest in agricultural reform led to an affinity with the Odiham Agricultural Society, both for its focus on new developments and for its encouragement to Sobriety, Scriptures and Sunday school. His zeal and philanthropic nature led him to take up the cause of animal welfare and to campaign for more humane treatment of sick animals. (Cotchen 1990)

He proposed to the Society that “Farriery, as it is commonly practised, is conducted without principle or science and greatly to the injury to the noblest and most useful of our animals”.

Also “that the improvement of Farriery established on a study of the Anatomy, diseases and cure of cattle, particularly Horses, Cows and Sheep, will be an essential benefit to Agriculture and will greatly improve some of the most important branches of national commerce, such as Wool and Leather.”

As a result, the Society meeting on August 19^th, 1785, resolved to “promote the study of Farriery upon rational scientific principles.”

However, neither the Society nor Burgess had the money, medical or scientific knowledge to carry this resolution through so it was later agreed to establish the Farriery Fund.

Arthur Young, author and traveller, joined the Society in 1785 and spent time in France in 1787. He visited the French veterinary school near Paris with over 100 students from all over France and other European countries except England. In 1788, two English boys were sent to Paris and the Society advertised for contributions.

That same year a Scottish farrier, James Clark, wrote “Prevention of Disease” in which he put forward the case for farriery schools, praising the French schools and calling for similar in Britain. Granville Penn, a campaigner for enlightened causes, read this treatise, joined the Society and subscribed to the Farriery Fund.

When Granville Penn met a Frenchman who had trained and qualified at the French veterinary school, Benoit Vial de St. Bel, he found someone who could provide the teaching experience required; their combined efforts resulted in a plan for a school in England. In order to raise money rapidly, Penn sought large subscriptions from sponsors and patrons, who would become the first governors of a new ”College or Body Associating for the purpose of encouraging Veterinary Science” and which would direct the schools.

The Society accepted the plan and appointed a London Committee to supervise the scheme since the school would be in London. On February 18^th, 1791, this Committee resolved to separate from its parent Society in Odiham in order to obtain the patronage of the Duke of Northumberland and from that same meeting, the London Committee was called ‘The Veterinary College, London’ and ‘Mr Saint Bell’ was appointed Professor to the College.

The College opened in 1792 with the first horse admitted for treatment in 1793.

Early veterinary education was limited in scope. Its focus was on the horse and owed much to farriery and it was only after the end of the French Wars (1815) that the profession began to realise a greater potential.

Cases of Farriery; in which Diseases of Horses are treated according to the principles of the Veterinary School of Medicine is an early English veterinary text (1806) by Sir John Shipp of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps and Veterinary Surgeon to 11^th and 23^rd Regiments of Light Dragoons. He was the first veterinary surgeon to be commissioned into the British Army, joining the 11th Light Dragoons on 25 June 1796. His book details the use of firing with hot irons and chemical blisters to promote inflammation and subsequent healing of intractable conditions such as quittor (Clabby, 1976). These techniques were used in Australia until about 1985 and firing is still used in much of the world including the Middle East and Africa. Bloodletting likewise still has a prominent position in the therapies of developing countries this author attended a veterinary conference in Mongolia in 2011 when we were taught various techniques.

Early veterinarians inevitably acquired the name of “leech,” an old English synonym for physicians and farriers (from a Teutonic root meaning “heal.” This word is etymologically distinct from the same word describing the blood-sucking worm (Old English lyce) e.g. Hirudo medicinalis, though the use of the one by the other has helped to assimilate the two words especially given the classic technique of the day – blood-letting.

With most veterinary graduates joining the army to service the thousands of horses necessary for cavalry, artillery and supplies, the Army Board of Officers coined the title “Veterinary Surgeon” in 1796, presumably army veterinarians were officers and they needed a more respectable title than “Horse-leech”. At that time army regiments had a Medical Officer known as a Regimental Surgeon and so it appears understandable that the Veterinary Officer was a “Veterinary Surgeon”.

With the Royal Veterinary College well-established in London, William Dick established a veterinary school in Edinburgh in 1823 and the first two veterinary journals were launched in 1828, one, The Veterinarian, published for 74 years. The first meeting of the Veterinary Medical Association was held in 1836.

The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) (RCVS, 2018) was established by royal charter in 1844 and started to compile the first Register of Members in 1847. The Odiham Agricultural Society ended a few years later but its legacy remained in the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons which acquired its first premises at 10 Red Lion Square, London in 1854.

In the United States, the first schools were established in the early 19th century in Boston, New York and Philadelphia. (Widder, 2005)

Veterinary Associations emerged in many countries – e.g. Australia, Switzerland, Norway, Romania, Mexico and the Netherlands, in the mid-nineteenth century in response to the changing circumstances of the profession.

MODERN DEVELOPMENTS

Although, in general, veterinary training remained rudimentary, many of the European veterinary schools and colleges (with the exception of those in Britain) became important centres for scientific research in their early days. Three developments in particular illustrate the way in which veterinarians contributed to and gained from the advance of science. Two of these were direct responses to the search for answers to the epizootics that threatened European cattle in the nineteenth century.

Slaughter policies, which predated the emergence of the profession, and germ theory, with Pasteur’s work demonstrating its validity, were important factors leading to the development of public veterinary services. These directed the campaigns that led to the eradication of rinderpest and contagious bovine pleuropneumonia from Europe in the late nineteenth century.

The work of Pasteur and Koch in immunology may have underpinned a growth in veterinarians’ capabilities for meeting animal diseases, but it was veterinary scientists such as Chaveau and Boulay, who played key roles in laying the foundations for Pasteur’s achievements and who gave him enthusiastic support. Similarly, veterinary scientists researching the dangers from diseased or contaminated animal products played a leading role in the development of parasitology. In turn, this led to veterinarians in western Europe (but, again, not Britain) finding increased employment as meat inspectors.

Veterinary science came of age in the late 19th century, with notable contributions from Sir John McFadyean, credited by many as having been the founder of modern veterinary research (AVMA, 2011). By the end of the nineteenth century, its value in the protection of animal and human health was well established, as was its status relative to other professions. This was recognised in the increasing incorporation of veterinary schools within universities, the peak institutions of tertiary education. The relationship between science, education and the profession remains at the core of its raison d’etre today. (Fisher, 2002)

 

Questions & Answers

What is the earliest date of veterinary medicine?

The earliest evidence of veterinary medicine comes from China, Mesopotamia, India, and Egypt c. 3000 BCE.

Who is the first veterinarian known by name?

The first veterinarian known by name is the Sumerian physician Urlugaledinna who lived and worked in Mesopotamia during the reign of Ur-Ningirsu of the city of Lagash c. 2121-2118 BCE.

What is the earliest work on veterinarian medicine from ancient Egypt?

The earliest veterinarian text from Egypt is the Kahun Papyrus dated to the reign of Amenemhat III (c. 1860-c.1814 BCE) of the Middle Kingdom.

Why is veterinarian medicine always only dated to the Greek and Roman period?

Veterinary medicine is usually dated to the Greek and Roman period because the scholars of the Enlightenment Period in Europe had no knowledge of the earlier contributions of ancient China, Mesopotamia, India, or Egypt because their histories were unknown and, later, due to European prejudice toward non-white/European civilizations.

Source-https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1549/a-brief-history-of-veterinary-medicine/

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