THE VALUE OF VETERINARY SCIENCE TO THE

STATE.*

BY AUSTIN PETERS, M. R. C. V. S.

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I have been requested to address you at this meeting of the State Board of Agriculture upon "The Value of Veterinary Science to the State.' By the term State is meant the people of the State, for the State would be nothing without its people, and the value of a profession or of a man to the State means the usefulness of that profession or man to the people in the community.

It cannot be denied that it is a benefit to a locality to have a man residing therein who is conversant with the nature and treatment of the diseases of the domesticated animals, and able to render surgical interference in case of injury, or when, for any other reason, his services are required. This is the popular idea among many people, that a veterinary surgeon is simply a horse and cow doctor, useful to be called on in case of a horse having colic or lung fever, or a cow having garget or getting choked, and that his usefulness ends there. This opinion is correct as far as it goes; but such an estimation of the value of an educated veterinary surgeon would be very limited if it did not comprehend more. Besides being useful as a general practitioner, his opinion should be sought and his advice followed in outbreaks of contagious disease among animals, and in matters

* Prepared for the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, delivered at Springfield, Mass., December 6, 1887, and copied by permission of Secretary W. R. Sessions.

relating to the public health, as far as it is influenced by the diseases of animals. Admitting, then, that the educated veterinarian is a useful member of the community in the generally accepted sense of horse and cattle doctor, let us look at him from the broader point of view, and see what he has done at home and abroad to protect the farmer from animal plagues, and of what benefit he may be to them in the future. Let us also look at the veterinarian as a sanitarian in protecting the public health by his knowledge of diseases common to animals and man, the inspection of slaughter-houses, dairy cattle, etc.

Disease among animals has been known since the earliest antiquity. We read of it as one of the plagues of Egypt, attacking various creatures, and in this case it was very likely some form of anthrax. Glanders was mentioned in the fourth century, and probably existed prior to that time. The earliest writers upon medicine devoted some of their energy to describing diseases of animals, among them being Aristotle, Hippocrates, Celsus (the Father of Medicine), and many others of the ancient Greek and Roman period. While the diseases, especially the contagious diseases of animals, have been recognized as of the utmost importance from a very early period, yet there was no effort to give men systematic education as veterinarians until the last century. Previous to that time veterinary education was acquired by those who had a taste for it by reading the works of others on the subject and by observation. Of course the earliest observers had no books to consult, but they recorded what they saw, and their successors had the benefit of these works and added to them the results of their own experience, and thus veterinary knowledge accumulates century after century until the establishment of the veterinary schools of Europe by the various European governments.

The value of veterinarians was early recognized. Those in the days of ancient Rome came from the same ranks which supplied the philosophers and the doctors. They were employed to attend the animals used in the gladiatorial arena, and most of them were both human and animal practitioners combined. They attended to the surgical needs of the gladiators at the same time. The cavalry of the Roman armies was also supplied

with veterinary surgeons. During the feudal period the masters of the horse to the various princes and barons acted in the capacity of veterinarians, and some of them wrote upon the diseases and management of the horse. To France belongs the credit of being the first nation to recognize the value of veterinary science to the State to the extent of founding institutions for the education of veterinarians, and affording them government support.

The first veterinary school was founded by Claude Bourgelat in the city of Lyons. He, through the influence of a friend, received permission from the government, August 5, 1761, to found a school for the study of diseases of the domesticated animals. The government assisted him by giving the school fifty thousand livres, payable in equal portions in six consecutive years. It was opened for students January 2, 1762, and soon acquired a continental celebrity. The first year there were three Danes, three Swedes, three Austrians, three Prussians, three Sardinians, and ten Swiss among the students, sent there by their respective governments to study the elements of the new medicine. Louis XV. thought so highly of the Lyons college that he named it the "Royal Veterinary School" in 1764. In 1765, the veterinary school at Alfort, a suburb of Paris, was founded by the French government, and Bourgelat was called from Lyons to assume the directorship of the new institution. We have not time to refer at length to the history of the continental veterinary schools. What information I have on the subject has been gleaned from Dr. Billings's "Relation of Animal Diseases to the Public Health," and I shall refer to them as briefly as possible.

France, as I have said, was first to found veterinary schools. They were under control of the government from the start, and remain so up to the present day. In 1777, the French government published strict rules for the management of its veterinary schools, and they have since undergone but few modifications. The other veterinary schools of Europe were founded by the various governments (except Great Britain) because they recognized the importance of having educated veterinarians to call upon in case of an outbreak of any of the contagious animal

plagues. To France we must credit two more veterinary schools, -one at Turin, Italy, founded by Napoleon I., during the extension of his empire, and another founded at Toulouse, in 1825.

The early directors and professors of the other similar institutions on the Continent were educated in France at the expense of their governments, and upon returning home, after completing their education, took charge of new schools for the instruction of their fellow countrymen. The Veterinary Institute at Vienna, Austria, was one of the earliest schools founded after the one at Lyons. It dates from 1767. Its first two teachers studied at Lyons, one being an Italian. Later two Austrians visited Alfort as students, and on their return, in 1777, the school was improved and modified by them, and is still in existence. A royal Danish veterinary college was founded at Copenhagen in 1773, and reorganized in 1858. Belgium organized a veterinary school at Brussels in 1835. The Russian government supports three schools for the study of veterinary medicine. Sweden founded a veterinary institution in 1774, its first director having been educated in France, chiefly at the Lyons school. During the latter part of the last century veterinary schools were established by the various principalities and kingdoms which now constitute the German Empire. The German veterinary schools are located at Stuttgart, Hanover, Munich, Dresden, and Berlin.

The course at the leading schools on the Continent, I believe, is four years, with a preliminary examination sufficient to prove that the applicant has a good common school education. England, I am sorry to say, with the best horses, cattle, sheep, and swine in the world, did not follow the example set by her neighbors across the channel. The Royal Veterinary College was established in London in 1792, by a Frenchman named Saint Bell. It had no governmental encouragement and support, but has always existed on the receipts of its hospital and the fees of the students. The other veterinary schools of Great Britain are in Scotland, one in Glasgow, the other two in Edinburgh. One of the Edinburgh colleges was founded by the late Professor Dick, who left it money when he died. The other, known as the New Veterinary College, is managed by Prof. W. Williams, who founded it a few years ago.

The graduates of this profession in Great Britain are practitioners of veterinary medicine, but not veterinarians in the broader sense, as they are on the Continent. Many of them have large practices, and some have even made fortunes in private practice, but I do not think that their field of usefulness is restricted by their not occupying more important positions as guardians of the public health. The course of study at the Continental schools is four years, and instruction is given both in the general practice of veterinary medicine and inspection of slaughter-houses, and other veterinary sanitary regulations as well, besides training the students to original scientific research. In the English schools the course of study occupies three years, and is almost entirely practical.

In the United States and Canada we have a number of colleges for the study of veterinary medicine. They have no uniform standard of education. Like our medical schools, they range from diploma mills— striving to turn out as many graduates as possible, regardless of fitness and education to institutions that are endeavoring to raise the standard of the profession and accomplish useful, honest results. Our American veterinary colleges, like those of Great Britain, are the results of private enterprise, and depend on the tuition fees of their students and the proceeds of their hospitals for the means of carrying on their good work, or, possibly, in a few instances, evil. The veterinary department of the University of Pennsylvania is an exception to the rule and has an endowment fund, I think, of about $20,000. As it has the confidence of the public, I have no doubt this fund will be increased in course of time. I will refrain from giving a detailed account of our veterinary institutions, as I confess to having prejudices in favor of some and against others, that might lead me to say more than I care to concerning them.

In this country it has not been customary for the general government to aid or manage educational institutions of the higher order, excepting our agricultural and industrial colleges, but our universities and classical colleges have been richly endowed by wealthy friends. It is to be hoped that at no distant day individuals with large means may recognize the fact that the sciences are no less important than Latin and Greek, and that before long