Welcome to this page about the history of veterinary medicine. So far, I've written a general introduction, gathered some comments and quotes about various interesting changes in our profession, and have started a time line where I've listed momentous, humerous, or intriquing events by approximate date.
It sure would be great if people would contribute material and stories to flesh out what is a fascinating story. email me at Foxnest@metacrawler.com if you have facts, stories, personal profiles, or information about the history of veterinary medicine. Thanks, Roger Ross DVM Seneca, SC
Introduction
The mental image of a veterinarian as being a bright and earnest young woman caring for pets is a very recent phenomenon: Most veterinarians graduating from veterinary schools over the last 10 plus years have been women, and most new veterinarians now earn their living taking care of pet dogs, cats, and horses.
But women veterinarians were rare as little as 30 years ago.
And veterinarians that treated pets exclusively were rare ... and considered somewhat sissy...as little as 50 years ago.
For that matter, prior to World War II, very few people would consider paying more than a token amount for the medical care of their pets any more than the average person today would consider taking an injured wild song bird to the vet.
And prior to World War I, it wouldn't have done much good to take your sick or injured pet to the vet: Antibiotics were yet to be developed. Dependable anesthetics weren't available. Surgical skills were minimal and crude. Most of what we take for granted was not yet invented.
Prior to World War I, cars and trucks were relatively rare and goods were moved from farm to town and from factory to rail yards and ports by horses and mules.
More than half our population worked on farms to raise food.
When countries went to war, millions of horses and mules went to war as well. So did thousands of dogs.
People were in such close contact with livestock and the rodents that thrived wherever livestock feeds are stored, and the parasites associated with animals, that major human disease epdemics were associated with animals.
This relationship, along with the importance of pasteurization, refrideration, the understanding of germs and parasitism, and so much more of what we now take for granted as common knowledge was not known til the mid 1800's: about the time of our Civil War (or as we call it in South Carolina; "The War of Northern Aggression").
But WOW. Ever since the mid 1800's, at least in the advanced countries of the West, there's been one amazing advance after another in our understanding of disease and our ability to fight and control it.
Modern man has no inkling of how many people died before reaching 40 due to disease prior to the advent of modern medicine, modern sanitation, modern food storage and handling, and the development of vaccines, antibiotics, anesthesia, modern medicines, and modern surgical and treatment techniques. NO IDEA AT ALL.
Veterinarians, along with animal and plant biologists, and certainly physicians ...first in Europe in the 1800's and later dominated by Americans in the 1900's, played a major role in the development of modern disease control and treatment. It's an exciting story.
Very early veterinarians were mainly concerned with the care of livestock and horses and mules.
But by the 1890's, many veterinarians were involved in figuring out and controlling those diseases that affected humans and our food supply:
In 1891, Dr. Leonard Pearson initiated the tuberculosis testing of cattle to help stop the spread of this disease to both man and other cattle.
Dr. Evan Stubbs isolated the avian influenza organism.
Dr. Karl F. Meyer saved America' s canning industry by developing a method to prevent botulism.
Veterinarians helped to create the Bureau of Animal Industry which played a very important role in protecting the American livestock and assuring the safety of the food supply.
Veterinarians have been at the forefront of getting major disease problems under control: Rabies. Hog Cholera. Hoof & Mouth Disease, Tuberculosis. Brucellosis, and many more.
Veterinarians have been involved with experimental medicine and surgery throughout the 1900's. Whenever a new technique or surgery was being developed or tried, it was often done on animals first ...for better or worse...and veterinarians were there.
Veterinarians are the vanguard of our modern food inspection services. Recently our media went "ape" when one cow with "Mad Cow Disease" was detected entering the US. That cow was quickly detected and isolated BECAUSE of a well run livestock and food inspection service staffed and run by veterinarians and agricultural scientists.!
They have been instrumental in the development of organ transplantation, transgenics, and almost every other important medical development.
Veterinarians in the United States armed forces and Center for Disease Contorl help to assure the security of our nation and are essential in the efforts to protect us from the threat of bioterrorism.
Throughout the developing world, you will find veterinarians alongside of agricultural scientists helping less advanced nations to maintain safe water supplies, to control parasitism, and to develop safer and more reliable food supplies.
In more recent years, advances in pet animal medicine have allowed our pets to live significantly longer, healthier, and more comfortable lives.
When one looks at all of the contributions that have been made to our society by the veterinary profession, it quickly becomes obvious that those contributions touch almost every aspect of our lives and that our lives have been improved by those contributions.
Imagine the miracles to come.
Roger Ross, DVM
The Beginnings of The Modern Era
in Veterinary Medicine:
In 18th century Britain, the most important commercial product was wool, involving in one way or another nearly one fourth of the population, and as the century wore on, the industrial revolution and a growing dominance of mercantilism put fine wool at a premium.
In this setting, a discussion took place in the British Parliament in 1755 about the economic effects of a fatal and spreading disease in sheep, and the need for government to do something about it. Thus begins the recorded history of scrapie. In cattle, this disease is known as Mad Cow Disease.
The absence of any suitable and effective form of anaesthesia severely limited the abilities of the veterinary surgeon.
Pre-anesthesia, the veterinary surgeon relied upon the forceful restraint of animals.
Surgical procedures were rarely attempted and if they were, they were rarely successful and caused considerable anguish for the patient.
It was not until the mid-nineteenth century that anesthesia experienced any significant advances.
From the 1850s the medical world experienced a boon in anaesthesia, new developments in anesthetic products and techniques enabled the veterinary surgeon to perform procedures and operations that previously he would have dismissed.
In 1847 the first veterinary treatment using anesthetic techniques was performed at the Veterinary College, London.
I hope you enjoy these pages. Most of the information is in outline form in a "Time Line". But scattered through out these pages are interesting side stories and lots of pictures.
Thanks & Recognition:
This page about the history of veterinary medicine is NOT a serious adedemic endeavor: most of the information is simply material I found pertinent and more or less copied and organized into a timeline style outline.
Credit, thanks, and recognition deserves to go to:
John Clewlow
BVSc, MPhil, MRCVS
Editor, Veterinary History (the journal of The Veterinary History Society)
1 St James Court, Grange Park Drive Biddulph, Staffordshire, ST8 7XX, UK
Kevin Easley
The USDA
Susan D Jones; author of a superb book about the history of American Veterinary Medicine called
"Valuing Animals".
This book focuses on our society's changing outlook and relationship with animals over the last 150 years.
I don't agree with some of her seemingly queer theory-feminist implications that early veterinarians were male sexist pigs motivated mostly by economic greed and political power complicit in our culture's use of animal body products.
(I think she means meat)
However, having made these critical comments, please note:
1. She's an expert; both a professor of history and a onetime practicing veterinarian. I'm strictly an amateur historian.
2. I may be misinterpeting her viewpoints unfairly and, besides, she may be right.
Indeed, I think she's mostly right. For example, I'm sure that most vets in the early 1900's were in fact male chauvanists who believed that veterinary practice was unsuitable for women. What I disagree about is the significance: So what? This chauvanistic attitude was the norm for the times in most professions...not an indication that the veterianary profession was especially evil or flawed.
It's certainly a situation that was quickly corrected; the profession is now dominated by exceptional women who as far as I can tell are motivated by the same things as their male counterparts: service to the animal, medical, and food-livestock industies, a love of animals, economic survival, and so forth.
3. Whatever your feelings on such matters, the book is excellent, thoughtful, and fair. I've liberally used her material as a source for the timeline and comments on these pages. Enjoy.
4. Her book is available from Amazon.
Thanks also to veterinarian James Porter for his 1956 book about American Vets combatting foot and mouth disease in Mexico.
A Little Aside about South Carolina!
From an article clipping in “The Columbia Record” , from the 1950’s or ‘60’s about being “proud, though not haughty” about South Carolina:
South Carolina is a small state. Yet I wonder if any state could stack up historic “firsts” comparable to the list of 45 our district agent, A.H. Ward of Aiken, has compiled for South Carolina. Here are a few of them:
First museum in America
First Chamber of Commerce
First man to pilot a steamship across the Atlantic
First long railroad
First train to carry mail
Oldest railway junction in the world
First submarine ever built
First musical society
First state hospital for the mentally ill
First orphan’s home
First monument to women
First agricultural society
Largest earthen dam
First Bible society
First YMCA in America
First girls’ 4H Club
First home demonstration club
First public library
First special library building
First to observe Memorial Day
First normal training school
First inoculation given for small pox
First native American to receive a degree as doctor of medicine
First monument erected to honor slaves
First high school with military training
First botanical gardens in America
First in textiles
It’s rivers carry more water into the Atlantic than any other state
First hydro-electric plant
Highest percentage of native born Americans
History’s mightiest industrial enterprise…the Savannah River Project
The first county fair
And so on.
I'm not a native of South Carolina and I know first hand that each of our United States offer areas of great beauty and a proud history. It's just that our daily news is so constantly filled with problems and "negative" news that it's nice every once in a while to remember what's good about America.
The same goes for yourself. Everybody has a little bit of God in them. Make yourself a list.
Click here to go to my page about the history of veterinary medicine of South Carolina.
The University of South Carolina has a new exhibit at their McKissick Museum called "Pets in America" including 19th century pet protraits and early veterinary medicines. Click here to visit their website
