The History of Veterinary Medicine

What we call " veterinary medicine " has been around as long as people and animals have
worked and lived together.

People that study history have found Chinese writings about the diseases of horses, oxen,
and buffalo that go all the way back to about 2,500 B.C. Some 4,000 years old Indian art
show some men caring for horses and elephants. The Ancient Egyptian art shows how they
make sure that their cattle and dogs health is well.

It is not surprising that culturesthat need animals for farming, food, and transportation
try to find ways to keep their animals healthy. The Ancient Romans had a word for the people
that are doctors for animals, which is, veterinarius.

In about A.D. 500 a Roman wrote a book on what veterinarians do. Nothing else was written
after that until a thousand years later another book was written. The book was called Anatomy
of the Horse and was written by an italian, Carlo Ruini, in 1598.

For more than a hundred years, the people that worked with horses were called farriers. These
people worked on what vets would normally work on, the forging and applying of the iron shoes
to horses hooves to protect their feet. They also worked with the horses injuries and illnesses.
They had to learn their skills by working directly with the animals because they didn't go to c
college. They knew a lot about stuff that is ordinary to know but they didn't know a lot about
science. Sometimes when the farriers worked on the animals it was primitive and hurtful to
the animals and it didn't work.

The first school that taught people about scientific veterinary was in Europe in the mid-
eighteenth century-less than three hundred years ago. It has gotten bigger as time goes.
In the end of the nineteenth century excellent veterinary schools have been established in
the United States.

When a University called Cornell University opened in Ithaca, New York opened it had only two classrooms and one professor which was Dr. James Law. He was taught in Scotland. Dr. Law

was the first person to become a professor that taught veterinary medicine in the United States.

Veterinary History is closely tied to the development of human medicine. Rudimentary medical skills are thought to have existed as early as 9000 bc among Middle Eastern shepherding cultures. These skills developed further in the hands of Egyptians from about 4000 to 300 bc.

Archaeologists have discovered papyrus fragments from an Egyptian medical textbook from around 1850 bc that describe diseases of cattle, dogs, birds, and fish. The fragments show that ancient Egyptians understood veterinary anatomy, recognized signs indicating certain diseases, and practiced specific methods of treatment. Evidence of animal medicine has also been found in other ancient civilizations, such as those of the Hindus, Babylonians, Hebrews, Arabs, Greeks, and Romans

The first veterinary school was founded in Lyons, France, in 1761. Later known as the Royal Veterinary School, its purpose was to provide study in the anatomy and diseases of horses, cattle, and sheep. The first American veterinary institution, the Veterinary College of Philadelphia, operated from 1852 to 1866. The School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, established in 1883, has the distinction of being the oldest accredited veterinary school currently operating in the United States.

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