1850-1864 Taiping Rebellion in China costing over 20 million lives. Rebellion suppressed with Western help
1850 Old age insurance introduced in France
1851 First World Exhibtion in London
1852
Harriet Beecher Stowe writes Uncle Tom's Cabin
Dr Livingston explores Zambesi
1853
Sam Colt modernizes small arms
The first veterinary school in North America is established in Mexico!
Canada would be next to start veterinary programs (in the 1860's)
1854
Self-governing windmill perfected
Florence Nightigale pioneers modern nursing in the Crimian War emphasizing cleanliness and hygiene
1855
First professional veterinary journal in the U.S.
David Hughes invents the printing telegraphs allowing newspapers in London to report on the war in the Crimea in real time
My ancestor Dr Milton Ross helps slaves escape on the underground railroad
London sewers modernized after outbreak of Cholera
In 1855 Congress appropriated $30,000 to investigate using camels to carry the mail from Texas to California.
1856 Another war between British and China mostly over Opium
1857
Louis Pasteur suggests in a paper that microorganisms may cause many human and animal diseases.
1859
Charles Darwin writes the Origin of the Species
The Pig War of 1859: click here for more about the Pig Wars of 1940, 1859, and 1906
1860's
Farmers made up 58 percent of the labor force.
The Pony Express April 3 1860 - Nov 1861 although suspended for a few months due to the Paiute Indian War
1860-75 - Change from hand power to horses characterized the first American agricultural revolution
Gang plows and sulky plows came into use
1861
Civil War begins in South Carolina.
The picture below is of an ambulance drill
Major Veterinary Colleges are well established in Europe (Edinburgh, London, Alfort, and Berlin) long before schools are started in the U.S. Like future veterinary schools in the U.S. they are oriented toward scientific investigation and eradication of diseases more than the skillful treatment of animals.
1862
Morrill Land-Grant College Act authorized public land grants for colleges to teach agriculture and mechanic arts.
Homestead Act passed. Lincoln approves the Homestead Act of 1862, which granted full title of up to 160 acres of land to settlers after five years of residence.
Although good in principle, the act was badly administered, and as a result large amounts of land passed into the hands of large corporations through "dummy" homesteaders.
President Lincoln signs legislation establishing the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He called it "the people's department" since 90 percent of Americans at the time were farmers. (Today only 2 percent are farmers.)
1863
U.S. Veterinary Medical Association started
While the US is busy fighting our Civil War, France occupies Mexico and different wars, revolts, and rebellions are raging throughout the World
1864
International Red Cross is founded in Geneva
Louis Pasteur develops pasteruization for wine
1865
Slavery abolished by 13th amendment to the Constitution. (And of course, by the price paid in thousands of lives in War)
1866
Gregor Mendel showed that traits pass from parents to offspring, the foundation of modern genetics.
Alfred Nobel invents dynamite
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was formed.
Robert Whitehead invents underwater torpedo
1867
Joseph Lister develops the use of antiseptic surgical methods and publishes Antiseptic Principle of the Practice of Surgery, one of the most important developments in medicine.
Lister was convinced of the need for cleanliness in the operating room, a revolutionary idea at the time. He develops antiseptic surgical methods, using carbolic acid to clean wounds and surgical instruments. The immediate success of his methods leads to general adoption. In one hospital that adopts his methods, deaths from infection decrease from nearly 60% to just 4% (1867)
Domion of Canada created
US buys Alaska for $7.2 million
First patent issued for barbed-wire fencing.
Refrigerator railroad car patented.
USDA begins research on animal disease.
1869
First transcontinental railroad completed.
Gypsy moth accidentally brought into the U.S. from France; established in Medford, MA.
Suez Canal opened.
First practical spring-toothed harrow patented; eliminated breaking teeth on roots and stones.
Dmitry Mendeleyev published the organizational groundwork for the periodic table of elements.
1870
Of gainfully employed persons, 47.4 percent were engaged in agriculture. This was the first time that farmers were a minority.
Silos came into use
Foot-and-mouth disease first reported in the U.S.
First systematized, synchronous meteorological report ever taken in the U.S. was read and transmitted by telegraph.
Rockefeller starts Standard Oil Company
1867 Pierre Michaux begins to make bicycles
France declares war against Prussia over the who controls Spain. Seige of Paris by Prussians ... whose advance is halted mainly due to severe diarrhea of the troops
Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur establish the germ theory of disease
European trained veterinarians...many of whom have trained in the labs of Louis Pasteur, Lister, and Robert Koch migrate to America bringing with them the idea of diseases being caused by "germs". These relatively well trained veterinarians play a big role in our country's early fight against the major diseases of the time.
Glanders disease in horses (and people) was so devastating during the civil war...as were outbreaks of respiratory disease outbreaks and "Texas Fever" in cattle and cholera in swine, that these were primary issues used to justify the establishment of veterinary schools.
1872
The "Great Epizootic Outbreak of Equine Catarrh" sickened a large percentage of horses. Officials blamed the illnesses of fire engine horses for the poor response of fire crews that allowed a fire to destroy much of Boston's downtown. Such events fuel the call for veterinary schools and government involvement modeled after European programs.
1873
Grasshoppers became a serious pest in the West.
The Washington navel orange introduced into California with trees secured from Brazil by USDA.
Aberdeen-Angus bulls imported from Scotland.
1874
Mennonites make first important introductions of wheat from Turkey into Kansas.
Glidden barbed-wire patent granted. Availability of barbed wire allowed fencing of rangeland, ending era of unrestricted, open-range grazing
Mechanical refrigeration invented.
H Soloman introduces pressure cooker for canning foods
1875
First state agricultural experiment station established at Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT.
1876
Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone
Custer's Last Stand
Nicholas Otto invents the internal combustion engine in Germany
Russo-Turkish war includes many of the Balkan States revolting against Turkey and the beginning of the fall of the Ottoman Empire
Our Country's 100th Birthday!
Telephone patented by Alexander Graham Bell.
Germ theory of disease verified. It takes a little time, but this changes everything!
Kudzu ("The vine that ate the South") brought over to US to World Expostition celebrating our Centennial in Philadelphia. Click here for more information about this amazing a frustrating plant... maybe we should introduce it to Iraq and Afgahnastan.
Charles Darwin wrote the first complete analysis and description of hybrid vigor called Cross- and Self-Fertilization in the Vegetable Kingdom.
1877
First shipment of refridgerated meat from Argentina to France
Edison invents the phonograph
Queen Victoria becomes Empress of India
1878
Milking machine invented.
Formalized veterinary education began at Iowa State College, making it the oldest state veterinary college. This may seem to contradict Cornell's claim to be the first, but note that Iowa claims to be the first STATE vet college.
French vineyards devasted by disease brought from America
1879
First vaccine for cholera
Edison invents the electric light bulb
Desert Land Act encouraged development of irrigation in arid lands; offered land at 25 cents per acre if irrigated and cultivated for 3 years.
United States Entomological Commission established to study grasshoppers.
British traders sent seed of the rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) from Brazil to Malaya; began Asian dominance of rubber market.
One of the important milestones in the improvement of military veterinary service was the requirement set forth in Army General Orders of 1879 and first included in Army Regulations of 1881 that thereafter all appointed as veterinary surgeons with Cavalry were to be graduates of established and reputable veterinary schools or colleges. The regulations also provided that the veterinary surgeons would have rank and precedence comparable to those of a sergeant major. Pay for a senior veterinarian was set at $100/month
This page is a timeline about the history of veterinary medicine mixed with some major events for the years 1850-1880
On other Pages:
Dr Milton Ross, Sir James Ross, Dr and General Ronal Ross, and other great Scots and Canadians in recent history ...coming soon
From The Ontario Veterinary College Website; This History:
1875?: 27 pioneering veterinarians met in Toronto to form the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association.
This launched a new era of organized veterinary medicine in Canada and the association would later become incorporated by statute in 1879 as the Ontario Veterinary Association.
This important date in the history of Ontario’s veterinary profession marked the beginning of a long, hard struggle to attain "true professional status" and the privilege of self-governance that the profession enjoys today.
The inception of organized veterinary medicine in Ontario came about early in the province’s history, considering Upper Canada had been virtually an empty region only 90 years before. Across the border, in the older states, veterinary organization was still in its fledgling stages, and in Great Britain, Queen Victoria had approved of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons only 35 years earlier.
The beginnings of veterinary work in Ontario are rooted in the history of its agricultural community.
Settlers required growing veterinary attention for their livestock and by the 1860's, the advent of travel by steamship and railway stimulated a greater need for better animal care as livestock became more vulnerable to European diseases.
Hog cholera, foot-and-mouth disease, anthrax, and other serious animal diseases were breaking out in the U.S., causing heavy losses and threatening to infect Canadian stock.
Unease over this situation and the lack of scientific training and diplomas to practice veterinary medicine prompted the establishment of a veterinary teaching college for Canada.
Andrew Smith was appointed to head the new college and in 1862, he began by giving supplementary lectures in veterinary subjects to agricultural students in Toronto.
Smith went on to form the private Upper Canada Veterinary School, and its successor, the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC), which is today, the oldest veterinary school in Canada and the United States.
The first class of three young men received their diplomas in 1866. In contrast, the 1999 graduating class of the Ontario Veterinary College has 99 students, and 67 of these are women.
In 1871, the veterinary profession reached another milestone when the Agriculture and Arts Act of Ontario was amended to provide that no one should append their name to the title of veterinary surgeon unless certified by a veterinary college.
The Veterinary Science Practice Act of 1931 broadened the scope of veterinary medicine by extending to include domestic animals as well as livestock.
The Ontario Veterinary Association, now the College of Veterinarians of Ontario, became a corporate body empowered to govern its members and issue licenses to practice. Veterinary medicine had grown from its origins in blacksmithing and horseshoeing.
Today, Ontario, "the cradle of veterinary science in America" has over 3300 licensed veterinarians and over 1150 practices.
From the Cornell Veterianary College website:
The history of the teaching of veterinary medicine at Cornell predates the establishment of the college in 1894.
Shortly after the university was founded in 1865, Ezra Cornell insisted that a chair of veterinary medicine be instituted. He instructed Andrew D. White, the university's first president, to seek the best-qualified person to teach courses in veterinary medicine and surgery.
President White secured the services of Dr. James Law, an already distinguished veterinarian and teacher, who was a graduate of the Edinburgh Veterinary College in Scotland.
Dr. Law became the first professor of veterinary medicine in the United States, and thus Cornell was the first American university to accord veterinary medicine equal rank with other sciences.
When the university opened in the fall of 1868, Dr. Law's first classes included students who were working toward degrees in agriculture and the biological sciences, as well as those pursuing veterinary degrees.
At Law's urging, Cornell set much higher requirements for a veterinary degree than any other institution at that time. Four years of study were required for a bachelor of veterinary science (BVSc) and an additional two years for a doctor of veterinary medicine (DVM).
In 1876, Cornell was the first university in the United States to award a DVM degree to Daniel E. Salmon, who had been a member of the university's first entering class and received the BVSc degree in 1872.
Dr. Salmon became the founding chief of the US Bureau of Animal Industry and is best known today for identifying the infectious pathogen Salmonella and pioneering the fight against contagious diseases.
Funding to construct a veterinary building was provided by the state in 1894 at the time of the charter of the New York State Veterinary College. When the college first opened for classes in the fall of 1896, there were six professors, two instructors, and 11 students.
The scholastic requirement for entrance was a high school diploma, a high standard at the time.
Women have played an important role in the college since its early days. Florence Kimball, the first woman in the United States to receive the DVM degree, graduated from Cornell in 1910. Seven of the first 11 women to become licensed veterinarians in this country were Cornell graduates.
Doctor on a house call
First surgery done under ether 1847
Homesteaders 1862
Horse Vet 1870's
Mr Stanley writes about his adventures exploring Africa with Dr Livingston
Published 1850
1860 Buffalo Soldiers
1850: Louis Pasteur
Late in the eighteenth century, reprints of some works of English veterinary writers and translations of German and French veterinary works appeared in American editions. The use of the Latin derived term veterinarian was introduced in the English writings of Sir Thomas Browne of Great Britain (c1802). It was not until much later that the term gained general usage for those who treated animals and their diseases and injuries. Before that they were called “farriers” or a “cow leech” and other similar names.
In 1844, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) was founded by a Royal Charter in the United Kingdom as a governing body of the veterinary profession to ensure that educational and ethical standards required by law were maintained. The college required five years of study—two years of basic veterinary sciences to understand healthy animals, anatomy, physiology, etc. and three years of clinical and clinical-related courses, skill of examinations, diagnosis, etc.
The founding date of the American Veterinary Medical Association was 1863. The U.S. Livestock Sanitary Association (now the U.S. Animal Health Association) was established in 1897. Other livestock and poultry organizations followed. The first United States veterinary school was not established until 1879. At that time, Iowa State University developed a program of graduate study in the field.
About 20 years after the establishment of the U.S. Department of Agriculture by Abraham Lincoln, the fledging Department’s administrators soon realized that there needed to be more support for scientific based programs to address issues of animal care and production. They were supported in these concerns by the farmers and ranchers who were having problems selling their animals and animal products abroad. So, in 1884, the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI*) was created by Congress within USDA in response to petitions from farmers and ranchers.
