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These 20 years before the turn of the century was a time of great change in governments and ideas across the world. But mostly this was a time when things like the gasoline engine and electric motors were developed and this would soon change everything.
In medicine, everything became different too with one discovery after another, with the advent of germ theory and anesthetics and successful surgery.
From the Iowa Veterinary School website:
Small town veterinarians were not common until the 1880s and 90s, and Iowa’s first veterinarians were generally concerned with large animal (farm livestock) practice. Farmers sent for the veterinarian by messenger and later by telephone. The vet gathered his tools and medicines and went to the farm in his buggy.
While the vet was making rounds, his clinic was left open for passing farmers to wait inside. Inside the clinic, a cage separated doctor’s pharmacy area from his waiting room. The cage prevented farmers from borrowing what they thought they needed while the vet was out on a call!
Most farmers felt they knew as much as the veterinarian and practiced a great deal of self-help medicine on their animals. A veterinary license was not needed until the turn of the century; until that time the vet competed with the farmer and any “quack” medicine a patent company chose to put out.
The vet himself often developed his own specific formulas for medicines and acted as his own drug store. Balance scales, mortars, and apothecary bottles were standard equipment for the veterinary clinic.
Early veterinary medicine suffered from the same constraints as human medicine. Germ theory was not a fixed institution until the late 1890s and medicines were often opium or alcohol based. However, veterinarians were medical pioneers.
Their work in eliminating diseases such as hog cholera and bovine forms of malarial fevers provided ground work for later advances in human immunization, disease theory and food safety inspection.
Vets were pioneers in surgery as well; they perfected pins and screws for shattered bones and artificial joints in animals before these concepts were applied to human medicine.
From the Washington State Veterinary College website:
Sept. 3, 1895
The Washington Legislature creates the office of State Veterinarian specifying that they also be the Professor of Veterinary Science at the college and a member of the State Board of Health. Sofus Bertelson Nelson, a native of Denmark, an Iowa State College graduate, and Spokane practitioner, is appointed to the post by the Board of Regents. Veterinary activities begin immediately at the college. The original curriculum is not a professional program but is a series of courses intended to supplement agriculture courses or provide preliminary training for students wishing to transfer to another school to complete veterinary degrees. Tuition and room fees are free for Washington residents.
The Board of Regents authorizes President Enoch A. Bryan to have a, "shed constructed at the south end of the armory for the veterinary department, the cost not to exceed $60.00."
Susan Jones, in her book "Valuing Animals" quotes a veterinarian (Harvard vet school grad R.J. Dinsmore) remembering that in the 1890's that "Nobody was laughed at more than the horse doctor.
Horse doctors were supposed to be a coarse, ignorant group who had made a failure of blacksmithing or farming and had turned to 'doctoring'. That they actually knew anything about medicine was an absurb notion".
An illustration that originally appeared in the Nov. 17, 1894, issue of the journal Scientific American showed doctors drawing blood from a horse to produce antitoxin for diphtheria.
The Claremont Riding Academy, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, shut its doors for good a few months ago. As the oldest continuously operated stable in New York City, it reached back to an era when horses were as common as taxis are today, and it prompted thoughts of some of New York’s most heroic horses: the 13 beasts of burden used in 1894 to produce the miracle drug of their day, diphtheria antitoxin.
The horses and their successors were stabled for nearly two decades at the New York College of Veterinary Surgeons, on East 57th Street and Third Avenue. Initially joined by a few sheep, goats and dogs, the horses prevailed because they were larger and better antitoxin factories: when systematically injected with diphtheria toxin, their immune systems were prompted to develop neutralizing antibodies against the germ’s poison. (Most survived the injections with nothing more than a fever and loss of appetite, but over the years quite a few horses succumbed to even tiny doses of toxin.)
At the time, diphtheria was one of the most common killers of children ages 2 to 14. Its name comes from the Greek for “leather” because the organism that causes it, Corynebacterium diphtheriae, induces a thick, tenacious membrane at the back of the throat that blocks the airway. Even when doctors insert a tube to prevent suffocation, the microbe remains a deadly threat by secreting a toxin that can cause paralysis and heart and kidney damage within weeks.
From 1890 to 1893, the physicians Emil von Behring of Berlin and Émile Roux of Paris independently developed effective diphtheria antitoxin to counteract the disease. During the summer of 1894, when Dr. Hermann Biggs, the chief bacteriologist of the New York City Health Department, made a scientific tour of Europe, Dr. Behring and Dr. Roux were using horses to produce antitoxin on a grand scale with stunning results; it staved off death in as many as half of all cases, especially if administered within 24 hours of infection.
So impressed by what was essentially human history’s first effective treatment against a devastating infectious disease, Dr. Biggs ran to the nearest telegraph office to wire his colleagues to obtain some horses immediately. There was one hitch. Dr. Biggs needed $27,000 for this life-saving effort, but the city did not apportion the budget until Jan. 1, 1895. Dr. Biggs wanted to start immediately because the process of “ripening” a horse to produce antitoxin required three to six months; consequently, he and a colleague, Dr. T. Mitchell Prudden, paid for the horses themselves.
The animals were injected with toxin starting in October. By December, they were subjected to regular blood draws, in which one to four pints were removed and refrigerated for a few days. The antitoxin serum was then separated from the clotted blood and purified using chemical techniques developed by health department bacteriologists.
The first doses of what became a steady supply of diphtheria antitoxin were available on Jan. 1, 1895. The results were striking. In 1894, there were 2,870 diphtheria deaths in New York City; by 1900, the number was down to 1,400, and it declined steadily in the following decades.
Diphtheria antitoxin was one of the first of a long line of medical media sensations that have come to characterize our culture. The New York Herald organized a public fund-raising drive to support the antitoxin stable. Magazines and newspapers around the globe clamored to report on the “antitoxin horses.”
Ever conscious of the importance of public relations when it came to public health, Dr. Biggs took great pains to explain how the horses were treated like hospital patients, how the healthiest of horses were selected for this vital task, and that the animals were fed wholesome food and lived in pristine stables.
1880's
One farmer out of every four was a tenant farmer.
Of gainfully employed persons, 49 percent were engaged in agriculture.
Evaporated milk developed.
1881
First electrical tram (in Berlin)
War of the Pacific over Salt Peter
First vaccine developed for anthrax by Louis Pasteur
Buffalo Soldiers circa 1880's
1882
First rabies vaccine developed by Louis Pasteur
Koch discovers the TB bacillus
Modern cream separator invented.
Tubercle bacillus isolated by German bacteriologist.
Edison designs first hydro-electric plant in Wisconsin
English take over Egypt
US bans Chinese immigrants for 10 years
1883
Methods developed to detect food adulteration; precursor to Pure Food and Drug Act.
Note: This period in history is the first time when large groups of ordinary people would ban together in trade unions, protest groups, professional organizations and so forth demanding changes from political leaders. Demands for food ... especially milk, poultry, and meat ... that weren't spoiled, watered down, or treated with chemicals (formaldehyde in milk !) were big issues among the many women's groups that were forming in this period. This was a huge issue in the elections of the turn of the century. This issue of food quality and standards was also a huge reason why so many veterinary colleges were started at this time ... a good thing too, for the veterinary profession as the car and truck would soon replace the horse.
First skyscrapper (10 stories) built in Chicago
First run of the Paris-Instanbul Orient Express
Bismarck introduces "Sickness" insurance to the world
French occupation of Vietnam
Revolt of the Mahdi ends in the British leaving Sudan
Note: I mention this event because it's representative of the great changes in the old world order ... in the late 1800's Spain's empire crumbles, the huge portion of the world still under Britain's control starts to rebel or otherwise breakaway ... often semi peaceably as in the case of Canada, and the break up of the Ottoman Empire that started in the 1850's will lead to war after war around the Mediterranean ending in eruption of World War 1 ... then World War 2 ... then unresolved issues in the Middle East that continue to this day
1884
First Federal animal quarantine law enacted.
Faced with major disease epidemics in our equine and livestock populations the Bureau of Animal Industry established. The BIA plays the major role in defining the veterinary profession until it is dissolved in 1953.
All the major efforts to understand and eradicate diseases in our country's livestock, the entire food inspection industry, the number one employer of veterinarians in different roles, and the number one influence on what will be taught in veterinary schools is dominated by this political-scientific-professional-government bureau.
The BIA is frequently criticized and suffers it's share of political controversies...including the resigning of the BIA's first and long time director Dr. Daniel Salmon in possible wrong doing...but overall the BIA accomplishments are largely responsible for a country that would become the world's most awesome and primier producer of wholesome food.
More on the BIA: within 5 years achieves much success in controlling Texas Tick Fever using scientific investigative methods.
The German Imperial General Staff established the world's very first Military War Dog School, at Lechernich, near Berlin, and started to train dogs as sentries and as messengers; the dog units were first mentioned officially in 1884, and again in 1886, in their Army's Field Service Regulations, for work with their armed services.
1885
First fungicide invented from lime and copper sulphate, known as the Bordeaux mixture.
Note: This was a big deal... horses and cattle with soft and rotten feet from standing in muck were miserable and useless and this was a very, very common problem.
As a young veterinarian a hundred years later in 1985 I used this toxic concoction ... brand named "CopperTox" to treat hoof rot and other diseases of the feet in cattle.
Mr Eastman invents photographic paper
Mr Benz develops gasoline engine
Note: Not to belabor the point, but this invention would change drastically how we in the future were to live. As for the veterinary profession ... which was 90% horse related ... it changed us from a horse oriented profession to a farm animal - food safety profession. Much later starting after World War 2, our profession evolved to also include companion animal medicine.
1886
Injected killed, whole-cell vaccine of hog cholera into pigeons to demonstrate immunity to subsequent administration of a live microbial culture.
Pasteur Institute founded in Paris
Statue of Liberty dedicated
1887
Hatch Experiment Station Act provided Federal grants to states for agricultural experimentation.
Goodwin invents celluloid film
First contact lenses developed by Adolf Frick
Queen Victoria celebrates Golden Jubilee
1888
Office of Experiment Stations established.
Refrigerated boxcars made first long-haul shipments of produce and meat.
Vedalia beetles imported from Australia to control fluted scale on citrus, the first successful biological control program of a crop pest.
Mr Tesla invents first electric motor
Mr Eastmans perfects the box camera
Mr Hertz identifies radio waves
Mr Dunlop invents the pneumatic tire
Jack the Ripper kills 6 women
1889
Department of Agriculture given cabinet status.
Felix Hoffman develops aspirin (acetyl salicylic acid). The juice from willow tree bark had been used as early as 400 BC to relieve pain. 19th century scientists knew that it was the salicylic acid in the willow that made it work, but it irritated the lining of the mouth and stomach. Hoffman synthesizes acetyl salicylic acid, developing what is now the most widely used medicine in the world.
Eiffel Tower erected
Insulin used to treat diabetes for the first time
Dakota, Washington, and Montana become States
Brazil becomes a republic
1890's
Developed simple test to determine butterfat content of milk.
The second Morrill Land-Grant College Act authorized separate land-grant colleges for Negroes—17 were established.
Meat Inspection Act authorized inspection of salted pork, bacon, and live animals intended for export, and the quarantine of imported animals. But this only applied to exported meat!
Of gainfully employed persons, 43 percent were engaged in agriculture.
"Horse Doctors" have a lowly reputation/stereotype of being duplicitous, cigar-chomping, and eqated with the social position of drunken grooms and vulgar farm hands.
Robert Jennings remembered that his efforts to establish the first veterinary school in Philadelphia foundered because "young men of education and respectability would not engage in a profession of so low a standing"
It's not surprising that because of the above stereotyping of so called horse doctors, legitimate veterinary school graduates of this era push for legislation for licensure and state practice acts restricting veterinary care to lincensed veterinarians of accredited veterinary schools.
This is an era when more and more Americans are getting their meats not from local farmers but rather from huge meat packing companies. In 1890, for example, over 5 million beef cattle are processed in the slaughter houses of Chicago; the center of meat packing in the U.S.
Problems, unhealthy practices, and consumer concerns in this industry will soon lead to major state and national food safety regulations involving thousands of veterinarians during future decades.
Nitrifying bacteria isolated from soil.
First moving picture show in New York City
Global Flu epidemic
First steel framed building
Rubber gloves used for the first time in surgery
Bismarck dismissed and Germany adopts Marxism
Emil von Behring discovers antitoxins and uses them to develop tetanus and diphtheria vaccines.
1891
First comprehensive list of animal and human parasites developed; today it comprises more than 30 volumes.
A short period in history of Long Cattle Drives
Bacteria shown to cause plant diseases, including tumors.
Antibodies proposed as responsible for immunity.
Conan Doyle introduces Sherlock Holmes
Famine in Russia
1892
Laws passed by The American Humane Association "prohibiting the repetition of experiments on animals for the purpose of teaching or demonstrating well known accepted facts."
The American Welfare Institute Founded
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)
First successful gasoline engine farm tractor built by John Froelich.
Viruses discovered.
Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia eradicated.
Cotton boll weevil found near Brownville, TX.
1893
Cause of cattle tick fever discovered; demonstrated that a disease-producing microorganism could be transmitted by an arthropod from one animal to another.
Karl Benz builds 4 wheel car
Rudolf Diesel patents diesel engine
Henry Ford builds his first car
World Expedition in Chicago
Zulu revolt in South Africa
U.S. experiences an economic crisis: 642 banks fail and 16,000 businesses close. As produce prices plummet, tens of thousands of small farms go under and surviving farmers don't have any money to waste on veterinarians
1894
Carey Land Grant Act granted land to western states after irrigation provided by the states.
Japanese-Chinese War: Japan takes Formosa (Taiwan) and Port Arthur
Italy defeated by Abyssinians and forced out
1895
Insects shown to spread plant diseases.
Mr Gillette invents the first safety razor
Mr Marconi invents the radio
Willem Einthoven distinguished five different phases (deflections) of electrical current shown in a electrocardiogram, which he named P, Q, R, S and T. (1895)
German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovers X rays.
Cuban revolution against Spain
1896
First vaccine for typhoid fever.
Beginning of Klondike Gold Rush
1897
My ancestor Ronald Ross discovers Malaria bacillus
First vaccine developed for Bubonic plague
Tea Importation Act passed, the first U.S. law regulating food products.
Concluded that disease could be caused by depriving body of certain substances, later defined as vitamins.
Turkey declares war on Greece and loses Crete
1898
Congress authorized testing of seeds purchased on open market.
The college of Veterinary Medicine at Washington State University was founded in 1899 beginning with a single $60 shed.
It is the fifth oldest veterinary college in the United States and sixth oldest among the veterinary colleges in the U.S. and Canada.
From these modest beginnings, the Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine has developed into a multi-million dollar state-of-the-art complex serving the entire Pacific Northwest
Spanish-American War ending the Spanish empire
Paris subway opens
Count Von Zepplin builds his Airship
1899
Aspirin first manufactured
First magnetic recording of sound
Boer War starts
Sigmund Freud interpets dreams
Boxer revolt in China kicking out all foreigners
