Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/219

Rh VETERINARY SCIENCE 199 animals under the direction of Cline. Moorcroft, who remained only a short time at the college, afterwards went to India and during a journey in 1819 was murdered in Tibet. 1 Coleman, by his scientific researches and energetic management, in a few years raised the college to a high standard of usefulness ; under his care the progress of the veterinary art was such as to qualify its practitioners to hold commissions in the army ; and he himself was appointed veterinary surgeon-general to the British cavalry. Owing to the lack of funds, the teaching at the college must have been very meagre, and, had it not been for the liberality of several medical men in throwing open the doors of their theatres to its pupils for instruction without fee or reward, their professional knowledge would have been sadly deficient. The board of examiners was for many years chiefly composed of eminent members of the medical profession. Coleman died in 1839, and with him disappeared much of the interest the medical profession of London took in the pro gress of veterinary medicine. Yet the Royal Veterinary College (first styled &quot;Royal&quot; during the presidentship of the duke of Kent) continued to do good work in a purely veterinary direction, and received such public financial support that it was soon able to dispense with the small annual grant given to it by the Government. In the early years of the institution the horse was the only animal to which much attention was given. But at the instigation of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, which gave 200 per annum for the purpose, an additional professor was appointed to investigate and teach the treatment of the diseases of cattle, sheep, and other animals ; outbreaks of disease among these were also to be inquired into by the officers of the college. This help to the institution was withdrawn in 1875, but renewed in 1886. This veterinary school has been the parent of other schools in Great Britain, one of which, the first in Scotland, was founded by Prof. Dick, a student of Coleman s and a man of great persever ance and ability. Commencing at Edinburgh in 1819-20 with only one student, in three years he gained the patronage of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, which placed a small sum of money at the disposal of a committee appointed by itself to take charge of a department of veterinary surgery it had formed. This patronage, and very much in the way of material assistance and encouragement, were continued to the time of Dick s death in 1866. During the long period in which he presided over the school, considerable progress was made in diffusing a sound knowledge of veterinary medicine in Scotland and beyond it. For many years his examining board, which gave certificates of pro ficiency under the auspices of the Highland and Agricultural Society, was composed of the most distingiiished medical men in Scotland, such as Goodsir, Syme, Lizars, Ballingall, Simpson, and Knox. By his will Dick vested the college in the lord provost and town council of Edinburgh as trustees, and left a large portion of the fortune he had made to maintain it for the purposes for which it was founded. In recent years another veterinary school has been established in Edinburgh, and one in Glasgow, both of which are doing good service. In 1844 the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (to be care fully distinguished from the Royal Veterinary College) obtained its charter of incorporation. The functions of this body were, until a recent date, limited almost entirely to examining students taught in the veterinary schools, and bestowing diplomas of membership on those who successfully passed the examinations conducted by the boards -which sat in London and Edinburgh. Soon after the Koyal College of Veterinary Surgeons obtained its charter of incor poration a difference arose between it and Dick, which resulted in the latter seceding altogether from the union that had been estab lished and forming an independent examining board, the Highland and Agricultural Society granting certificates of proficiency to those students who were deemed competent. This schism operated very injuriously on the progress of veterinary education and on profes sional advancement, as the competition engendered was of a rather deteriorating nature. After the death of Dick the dualism in veterinary licensing was suppressed : the Highland Society ceased to give certificates and the only mode of admission to the profession was through the Royal College. Since then the subjects taught have been increased in number ; conformably with the requirements of ever-extending science, the period of study has been enlarged so as to be nearly as long as that imposed upon medical students ; the teaching is more thorough and practical ; and the examinations are more frequent and searching. Candidates for admission to the schools must also give evidence of having received a good general education. Also since the suppression of the dual system an Act of Parliament has been obtained protecting the title of the graduates of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, and conferring other advantages, not the least of which is the power granted to the college to remove the names of unworthy members from its register. In some respects the Veterinary Surgeons Act is superior to the Medical Act, while it places the profession on the same level as other learned bodies, and prevents the public being imposed upon 1 See Moorcroft and Trebeck s Travels in Cashmere and Thibet. by empirics and impostors. The college has instituted a higher degree, that of fellow, which can only be obtained after the graduate has been five years in practice and by passing a severe examination. Fellows only can be members of council or members of the examin ing boards. The graduates of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons who have been registered since its foundation in 1844 probably number 4000. In the British army there is a smaller mortality among the animals employed, and less loss from con tagious diseases than in any other in Europe ; this result, as well as the high efficiency of the horses, is largely due to the zeal, intel ligence, and natural aptitude of the veterinary officers for their special duties. In no other army are they so severely tested, physically and professionally, more than one-half of their service being foreign ; and in India their skill has to be exercised on elephants, camels, bullocks, cattle, and sheep, in addition to horses. During war the strain on army veterinary surgeons is very heavy ; and, while surgeons are protected in the field by the Geneva Red Cross, being considered as non-belligerents, veterinary officers are regarded as combatants, and therefore run the risk of capture, imprisonment, or death at the hands of the enemy. In India there are one or more veterinary schools in each presi- In India, dency, in which natives are trained as veterinary surgeons. The need for this will be perceived when it is stated that the loss in India from preventible animal diseases alone amounts to at least 6,000,000 annually. In the United States of America veterinary science has been an in the exotic of very slow growth. There are veterinary schools in New United York, Minneapolis, and elsewhere, but these, like those in Great States. Britain, are private institutions. To the Cornell, Pennsylvania, and Harvard xiniversitics veterinary schools or chairs have been attached with competent teachers. Events are at present rapidly compelling the people of the United States to realize the true value and importance of veterinary science. For many years the &quot;lung plague&quot; has been gradually extending itself westward, and it is now causing heavy losses. Long exempted from the more serious of the contagious diseases of animals which have scourged Europe, the United States are now invaded by all of them except two cattle plague and the foot-and-mouth disease ; and an exotic disorder of pigs, the swine plague or fever, is threatening to exterminate these animals. The veterinary literature of this period affords striking evidence of the progress made by the science: excellent text-books, manuals, and treatises on every subject belonging to it are very numerous, and are published in every European language, while there is an abundance of periodical literature. The education general and technical of practitioners of veterinary medicine has, of course, been improving to a corresponding extent. The matriculation test for admission to the best veterinary schools and the fixed period for instruction in them vary but little from those of the medical schools. In Germany the veterinary schools at Berlin and Hanover have been raised to the position of universities. Objects of the Science. One of the chief objects of the science is the treatment Treat- of disease in animals. Veterinary medicine has been far ient of less exposed to the vagaries of theoretical doctrines and cllsease - systems than human medicine. The explanation may perhaps be that the successful practice of this branch of medicine more clearly than in any other depends upon the careful observation of facts and the rational deductions to be made therefrom. No special doctrines seem, in later times at least, to have been adopted, and the dominating sentiment in regard to disease and its treat ment has been a medical eclecticism, based on practical experience and anatomico-pathological investigation, rarely indeed on philosophical or abstract theories. In this way veterinary science has become pre-eminently a science of observation. At times indeed it has to some extent been influenced by the doctrines which have controlled the practice of human medicine such as those of Broussais, Hahnemann, Brown, lasori, Rademacher, and others yet this has not been for long : experience of them when tested upon dumb unimaginative animals soon exposed their fallacies and compelled their discontinuance. Of more moment than the cure of disease is its preven- Preven tion, and this is now considered the most important object tll)n of in connexion with veterinary science. More especially is this the case with those serious disorders which depend for their existence and extension upon the presence of an infecting agent, and whose ravages for so many centuries