VETERINARY HISTORY TIME LINE
BEFORE 1900
I hope that the following time line will interest you. For me, researching this subject, has more than anything, made me very grateful to live in the modern world. As you scan the items in the time line, imagine what it must have been like to live in a place and time without modern medicine, modern sanitation, and when most pets (and many humans) died young of worms, parasites, and disease. And that was accepted as normal.
Early Chinese Writings: Traditional Chinese Medicine was practised before 1766 BC but the first medical text was the Nei Ching Su Wen (Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine), c. 300BC. The Nei Ching detailed the AP system as well as other medical knowledge. Horses were very important and "horse priests" practised their trade from at least 1766 BC. Many texts on veterinary medicine were written in the period 221 BC to 1608 AD.
2600 BC The Egyptian Imhotep describes the diagnosis and treatment of 200 diseases
500 BC Alcmaeon of Croton distinguished veins from arteries
460 BC Birth of Hippocrates, the Greek father of medicine begins the scientific study of medicine and prescribes a form of aspirin
300 BC Diocles wrote the first known anatomy book
280 BC Herophilus studies the nervous system
Ancient Greece: Presereved writings indicate an interest in animal diseases.
Cato (c 200 BC): Roman agricultural writer who recommended the use of olive oil dregs, lupine extract and good wine for sheep scab.
130 AD Birth of Galen. Greek physician to gladiators and Roman emperors
Time of Christ: Various written records that mention the treatment of horses. Fairly detailed diagrams of horse anatomy and acupunture points from China. It is said that horse anatomy/acupuncture books in China predate human acupunture maps because horses were so much more valuable than people.
Columella: (c 70 AD) thought that it was better to get rid of suppuration with the surgeon's knife, rather than with medication, and then to wash the wound with warm ox urine and bind it up with linen bandages soaked in liquid pitch and oil. Even at this early time it was obviously appreciated that an infected wound would not heal without first removing infected tissue.
c60AD Pedanius Dioscorides writes De Materia Medica
910 Persian physician Rhazes identifies smallpox
1010 Avicenna writesThe Book of Healing and The Canon of Medicine
1249 Roger Bacon invents spectacles
1489 Leonardo da Vinci dissects corpses
1543 Vesalius publishes findings on human anatomy in De Fabrica Corporis Humani
1590 Zacharius Jannssen invents the microscope
1628 William Harvey publishes An Anatomical Study of the Motion of the Heart and of the Blood in Animals which forms the basis for future research on blood vessels, arteries and the heart
1656 Sir Christopher Wren experiments with canine blood transfusions
1670 Anton van Leeuwenhoek discovers blood cells
1683 Anton van Leeuwenhoek observes bacteria.
Gaston Phoebus (1387-8): in his Le Livre de Chasse, devoted two chapters to the care of hounds. Wounds were not sutured and only bite wounds were treated. These were covered with raw wool drenched in olive oil, the dressings being changed every day for three days. The wound was then left open to the fresh air and the healing effect of the dog's tongue. This would have been a reasonably effective treatment as lanolin (present in raw wool) and oil have an emollient as well as a light anaesthetic and antiseptic effect.
Renaissance: inventors and scientists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Ruini were just two of several contributors to the advancement of equine dentistry;
Some advancements included surgical descriptions about how to cut the lip of a horse to better accommodate the bit.
Information was passed between horse traders, farmers, and commoners.
Deception in the horse trading business blossomed as owners learned how to alter their horse's dentition to mimic the tooth shapes and characteristics of younger horses. This art of creative grinding became a crime.
Leonard Mascall 1605: First Booke of Cattell; under the heading of 'Impostumes in beastes to helpe', advised to 'open the place with an yron, and when it is cut, then shall yet crush forth all the ill humour and matter therein'. He next suggested washing the wound with warm wine to cleanse it and using a mixture of 'Cherpi, (so called in French)', 'tarre' and 'oyle Olive' to 'close the sore therwith'.
1617: William Harvey of the Royal College of Physicians publicly proposed that the blood circulates in the body, pumped into the arteries by the muscular walls of the heart. His discovery of the circulatory system destroyed previous theories of the ebb and flow of blood into the vessels, and disproved the theory of the four humors. Several scholars added to Harvey's theory, Richard Lower (1631-1691) showed that blood was effected by exposure to air in the lungs. Lower also conducted some of the first blood transfusions, firstly between two dogs, and even between sheep and man.
The transfusion of blood has been practised in human medicine ever since, although with a high mortality rate. In many cases an allergic response was triggered. It was not until the compatability of blood groups was considered, and routine blood testing took place, that transfusions reached a reasonable success rate.
From the1631 edition of The Whole Art of Husbandry byConrad Heresbach:
'be great and in a fleshie part, or any other part where conveniently you may, best stitch it up with a needle and redde silke, then taynte it with Terpentine, Ware, & clarified Hogges-grease of each like quantitie, and halfe so much Verdigrease"
From the 1676 edition of Markham's Cheap and Good Husbandry:
'Of the Imposthume in the ear, Pole-evil, Fistula, Swelling after blood-letting, any gall'd back, Canker in the Withers, Sitfast, Wens, Navel-gall, or any hollow Ulcer. ... the most certain cure is to take clay of a Mud or Lome-wall, without Lime, the straws and all, and boyling it in strong vinegar, apply it plaister-wise to the sore, and it will of its own nature search to the bottom and heal it; provided, that if you see any dead or proud flesh arise, that then you either eat or cut it away.'
Yuk!
1701 Giacomo Pylarini gives the first smallpox inoculations
1747 James Lind publishes his Treatise of the Scurvy stating that citrus fruits prevent scurvy
In his Gentleman's Farriery (1764), John Bartlet refers to La Fosse, farrier to the King of France, who had had success using puff-balls to stop bleeding, a method used about 160 years previously by the German surgeon Felix Wurtz on humans.
Bartlet's recommendations were applauded by John Wood in his A New Compendious Treatise of Farriery (1752) and for a soothing ointment for irritating wounds he advised:
'Take Half a Pound of Leaf-tobacco, and boil it in a Quart of Red Wine to a Pint. Then strain off the Liquor, and add to it Half a Pound of Tobacco finely Powdered, a Pound of Hogs-lard, a Quarter of a Pound of Rosin, four Ounces of Bees-Wax, and two Ounces of the Roots of Round-Birthwort in Powder. Make these Ingredients into an Ointment.
1761: The first organized teaching on animal medicine in Lyons, France followed soon by similar schools in England, Germany, and other European countries.
1763 Claudius Aymand performs the first successful appendectomy
1776: The American Revolution
Most populous city in America at the time is SENECA, SC; a Cherokee Indian town who make the historical mistake of siding with the British
William Youatt (1776-1847): very influential veterinarian at this time who wrote books on The Horse, Cattle, Sheep, The Pig and The Dog. These works were the equivalent of modern-day textbooks, containing a wealth of information.
William Buchan (1729-1805) was a Scottish physician, born at Ancrum. He practiced at Edinburgh from 1766 to 1778, when he removed to London. He published Domestic Medicine (1769), which was the first popular work of the kind, and was translated into many European languages. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.
... the “average farming household held very few if any books, supposing it had members who could read… By the eighteenth century, the Bible was reputedly accompanied in every Scottish croft by William Buchan’s Domestic Medicine (1769) and a copy of Culpeper’s Herbal…
1791: the founding of the London Veterinary College:
Around this time in England, the famous racehorse Eclipse had died after an amazing and unbeaten career on the racetrack and it is worth remembering that the vast majority of racehorses today are the direct descendents of this awesome talent.
Monsieur Charles Benoit de St. Bel from the vet school in Lyon happened to be the only qualified veterinarian in the UK at that time, and was therefore asked to perform the post-mortem to ascertain the secret of Eclipse's successful life. It must have been a lonely job as the only vet in the UK so Monsieur St. Bel decided to establish a veterinary school: in Camden Town, London in 1791; four students starting the course in January 1792.
1793 - Invention of cotton gin
1794 - Thomas Jefferson's moldboard of least resistance tested
1795 Jenner introduces smallpox vaccine
1796:
Edward Jenner develops the process of vaccination for smallpox, the first vaccine for any disease
The British Royal Army Veterinary Service was founded in 1796 by public demand, outraged that more Army horses were being lost by ignorance and poor farriery than at the hands of the enemy.
Parliamentary debate and media attention obliged the Committee of General Officers to take positive action and the Army Veterinary Service was born ‘to improve the practice of Farriery in the Corps of Cavalry’. A Principal, Professor Edward Coleman, was appointed and graduates of the London Veterinary School, of which Coleman was the Head, began to be recruited to the regiments of cavalry.
John Shipp was the first veterinary surgeon commissioned into the Army. He joined the 11th Light Dragoons on 25 June 1796, a date now recognised as the Foundation Day of the RAVC - John Shipp Day.
1797 - Charles Newbold patented first cast-iron plow
1799 Rosetta Stone discovered
1809: Scottish anatomist Allan Burns demonstrates the association of high blood pressure with angina (chest pain) and sudden death due to heart attacks (which had previously been attributed to "acts of God") The demonstration is still valid today: put a tourniquet on your bicep and then exercise the arm. It won't be long until extreme fatigue and pain sets in and the arm goes limp. Remove the tourniquet and soon all is well. This mimics what happens to the heart if coronary arteries (arteries supplying the heart with blood and nutrients) are restricted due to clogging (the most common form of severe heart disease today) For other great Scots in
This page covers the years up to 1900...about the time things really start to get cooking.
Many of the items listed are about veterianry medicine which is the topic of this web site, but many of the time line items are about medicine in general, major historical events to give perspective, or listed simply because I thought they were interesting.
On other Pages:
Persian physician Rhazes is the first to identify smallpox, as distinguished from measles, and to suggest blood as the cause of infectious disease. (910) Birth of Hippocrates, Greek physician and founder of the first university. Considered the father of medicine. (460 BCE)
1001-1600
Dutch lens grinder Zacharius Jannssen invents the microscope (1590)
1601-1700 Anton van Leeuwenhoek refines the microscope and fashions nearly 500 models. Discovers blood cells and observes animal and plant tissues and microorganisms.(1670) William Harvey publishes An Anatomical Study of the Motion of the Heart and of the Blood in Animals, describing how blood is pumped throughout the body by the heart, and then returns to the heart and recirculates.(1628)
1701-1800 James Lind , a Scottish naval surgeon, discovers that citrus fruits prevent scurvy. (1747)
Edward Jenner develops a method to protect people from smallpox by exposing them to the cowpox virus. (1796)
Some of the great advancements made in the 1700’s were the result of John Hunter, a Scotsman who lived and worked through most of the century (1728-1793). He left an important legacy not only by his research and writing, but through those he trained as well. Up until this time, the “veterinary type profession” consisted of mostly self-declared practitioners, farriers, blacksmiths, herdsmen, and local granny-witch doctors who were mostly illiterate. The educated horse masters, country squires and intellectually curious gentlemen often quoted the ancient masters. There was also the ethic that animals are put on this earth to serve mankind and that they were unable to feel pain as humans did. These ideas often fostered a sense of callousness and cruelty in people who were around animals. The more disgusting and harsh the treatment of disease the more effective people thought they would be. In many ways, the level of treatment for human diseases was not much different.
However, in the 1700’s there appeared a new type of veterinary practitioner known as the surgeon-farrier. Individuals like John Hunter were part of this emerging group. This was a dramatic change in they type of individuals who were interested in treating animals. These men were often a physician, surgeon or apothecary who for various reasons turned to treating animals. For the first time, there was an active practitioner who could write about his research, experience, and treatment activities. Most of the early literature focused on the horse—obviously one of the most important animals in the culture and often the most valuable. John Hunter was of this genre.
At an early age, Hunter became an assistant to his brother William, a renowned physician, anatomist and medical educator. John became an avid anatomist and took to surgery and dissection and research with enthusiasm. After working with and learning from his brother for 12 years, he served as a surgeon in the army. He then learned dentistry through association with the Spence family. For 30 years, until his death in 1793, Hunter examined everything from hearing in fish to dentistry. He contributed more written work on domestic animal husbandry and veterinary science than anyone had published in the previous 125 years. Originally most of the papers were published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, but were republished in 1792 in a compiled work “Observation on the Animal Oeconomy.”
