0:01

Welcome to steph you missed in history

0:03

class from how Stuff Works dot Com.

0:12

Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly

0:14

from and I'm Tracy V. Wilson.

0:17

So, Tracy, I had to run

0:19

to the vet recently, UM,

0:22

and I while I was there because

0:25

it was kind of an emergency visit, my regular

0:27

vet, who I love in a door and have been with more than a decade,

0:30

was in surgery, so she could not see us.

0:32

And we saw another vet at the practice that I had never

0:34

met before, and she's fairly new and she was lovely, and

0:36

she was telling me this story about how

0:38

she had just gotten back from Africa. Um.

0:41

She had gone with a group to Malawi where

0:44

they have been having really big issues with Raby's

0:46

outbreaks. And basically they go and

0:48

they do rabies

0:51

vaccinations on literally thousands

0:53

and thousands and thousands of dogs. You told

0:55

me this number, and it was bind bogglingly

0:58

huge number. She told me. It was estimated

1:00

seventeen thousands, so many. Yeah,

1:02

And part of it is that in Malawi,

1:05

like it's not so much that everyone's worried about

1:07

the dogs because the dogs are not seen

1:10

as like pets the same way we have

1:12

pets here in the United States and many of the many

1:14

other places in the world. But it was because this

1:17

raby's outbreak had been causing problems

1:19

where children were getting bit by rabid dogs,

1:21

and so they were trying to address it that way. And she

1:24

and I got into this discussion about how animals

1:26

are treated much differently, and like they don't have

1:28

the same kind of approach to veterinary

1:30

care because they're working animals. It's

1:32

culturally just very very different. Uh.

1:35

And it got me thinking about veterinary

1:37

history. So that is what we're going to cover

1:39

today, a very brief history of

1:41

veterinary medicine. It is not comprehensive

1:44

by any means, because things were developing all over the

1:46

world at different times, uh and

1:48

in different ways with different cultures. That's

1:50

what we're talking about today. There are also

1:52

lots of indigenous practices that

1:54

we don't necessarily have documentation on,

1:57

but logically we know they existed her

2:00

wrecked uh and there are

2:02

The problem with that is that a lot of it, like Tracy

2:04

said, is not documented, and what documentation

2:06

there is is a little bit hazy and often

2:08

seen through the eyes of

2:10

a completely different culture. So the interpretation

2:13

is really not entirely

2:15

trustworthy. UM, So

2:18

we're not going to cover everywhere in the world, but we're

2:20

getting a pretty good sampling. Um.

2:22

A lot of European and US stuff,

2:25

of course, but also uh, some stuff

2:27

that was going on in India and China,

2:29

in the Middle East and how all of these

2:31

different cultures were developing their own

2:33

means of caring for animals. And

2:36

a couple of caveats in addition to

2:38

that is that we're not going to delve into veterinary

2:40

care in terms of like the specificity

2:43

of caring for zoo and aquarium

2:45

animals. That is a whole other,

2:48

fascinating realm of veterinary science,

2:50

but it really is its own topic on its

2:52

own. So we're focusing on care for animals

2:55

in this one that people would keep as

2:57

working animals and pets like people for

3:00

lack of better phrasing, because I know not everyone likes

3:02

the term ownership when it comes to animals, but

3:05

for this animals that

3:07

would be owned by people. Uh. And we I've

3:10

debated over how to set this up in terms

3:12

of like if it would be better to go with each individual

3:14

culture in their timeline, But what I ended

3:16

up doing was going more or less chronologically.

3:19

There are some overlaps of where things are

3:21

developing over hundreds of years where it's not entirely

3:23

chronological, but I went that way instead.

3:25

So geographically speaking, we're doing a lot of

3:27

traveling and bouncing around the world,

3:30

so buckle up for that. We're going to start

3:32

off with ancient times. In

3:34

a History of Veterinary Medicine from

3:36

nineteen thirty nine that's in Iowa

3:38

States Digital Repository. The

3:41

opening begins the birth

3:43

of veterinary art probably preceded

3:46

that of human medicine and biological

3:49

existence. Food is the primitive

3:51

requirement. Veterinary medicine

3:53

sustains life, human medicine

3:56

preserves it. An awareness of animal

3:58

health in ancient times is

4:00

even mentioned in the Bible. While the directives

4:03

of Moses to his people who inspect animal

4:05

flesh intended for eating is about

4:07

the cleanliness of items to be consumed,

4:09

it also indicates that the health of animals

4:12

was on people's minds. But even

4:14

before that time, humans

4:16

were obviously considering animal

4:19

well being. Once any

4:21

type of animal was domesticated, the

4:23

humans who lived alongside those animals would

4:25

naturally become aware of illnesses

4:27

that would have probably gone unnoticed

4:30

otherwise. Additionally, keeping

4:32

animals together would promote the spread

4:34

of infectious diseases, so it was in humans

4:36

best interests to try to treat these problems.

4:39

And while there's some evidence that people in

4:42

the Middle East, for example, were applying treatments

4:44

that could be categorized as rudimentary veterinary

4:46

medicine for their flocks as early

4:48

as nine thousand b C, the

4:51

earliest known individual who is labeled

4:53

as a healer of animals was, and I'm

4:55

going to butcher this name because I could not find a good

4:57

pronunciation guide for it, was er Lu

4:59

Gala Dinner, who lived in Mesopotamia

5:02

around three thousand BC. During

5:04

the same time, there were veterinarians mentioned

5:07

who served as doctors of oxen and doctors

5:10

of donkeys, but none are specifically called

5:12

out by name, and there really is not much information

5:15

about either of those jobs. Approximately

5:18

five hundred years later, writings

5:21

dealing with the care of horses and cattle

5:23

started appearing in China. Traditional

5:25

Chinese veterinary medicine has been

5:28

described as a branch of traditional Chinese

5:30

medicine, and the two of them developed concurrently

5:32

with medical treatments for humans, often

5:34

being adapted for use with animals. This

5:37

included veterinary acupuncture, although

5:39

the first Chinese book about treating

5:41

animals with acupuncture didn't

5:44

appear until the seventh century BC.

5:47

The Ashina Code appeared in Mesopotamia

5:50

around twenty three b C, and

5:53

in it, rabies is clearly discussed

5:55

via laws about mad dogs that

5:58

made the owners of mad dogs liable if

6:00

one of their dogs were to bite and kill someone.

6:03

Penalties of payment were clearly established

6:05

in these laws and around the same

6:07

time, but believed to have been written slightly

6:10

later, the Code of Hammurabi set

6:12

rules for how much veterinarians could charge

6:14

for their services. The

6:16

Calhoun Papyri, written during the

6:18

Middle Kingdom of Egypt, which ran from

6:21

twenty to seventeen eighty two

6:23

BC, included a text on

6:25

veterinary medicine, including

6:27

herbal remedies for treating domestic

6:29

animals, and as we mentioned in our episode

6:31

on cats, throughout history and

6:34

as pretty common knowledge, few lines

6:36

were much loved and even revered in ancient

6:38

Egypt, and cats have been found mummified

6:41

in much the same way that humans were Vedic

6:44

literature dating as far back as fifteen hundred

6:46

BC includes descriptions of protective

6:48

ointments for cows and horses as well

6:51

as humans. These writings also

6:53

outline the foundations of what would become

6:55

general medical knowledge for both humans

6:57

and animals, and there is discussion

7:00

of observing animals behavior when they're

7:02

sick to learn more about the potential curative

7:04

properties of plants, stating, quote,

7:07

the wild boar knows the herb which will cure

7:09

it, as does the mongoose. So they were

7:11

basically advocating, watch what animals do

7:13

when they're sick, and you're gonna find plants that might help

7:15

humans too. I'm just gonna

7:17

take a moment to say, don't don't

7:20

rely on that in the wild. No,

7:22

no, no, they were advocating that. Then

7:25

today I say, go to a doctor. Yeah,

7:28

well, there are definitely things that animals are fine

7:30

eating that will kill humans.

7:32

The many Vedic

7:34

texts were translated into Tibetan, Arabic,

7:37

and Persian, and there are legends

7:39

incorporated into the included discussions

7:41

of animal care, so God's revealed

7:44

to the to the people how to care for horses

7:46

and elephants, for example. Later

7:49

Hippocrates wrote of animal health around

7:51

four hundred BC. He

7:53

described hydro thorax that's an accumulation

7:56

of water or fluid on the lungs in

7:58

livestock animals such as sheep, pigs,

8:00

and oxen, and he also described a

8:03

cow having a dislocated hip. Livestock

8:05

ailments were also described in the fourth century

8:08

BC, with that being by Aristotle.

8:11

This writing features a detailed description

8:13

of an ailment in dogs that we now recognize

8:16

as being an account of rabies. And rabies,

8:18

of course, is not confined to dogs

8:21

that in Aristotle's writing he associated

8:23

with dogs. Dogs are probably the animal

8:25

that humans are most likely

8:28

to be having contact with, especially

8:31

in earlier centuries, that were

8:33

likely to carry rabies. Yeah.

8:36

Horse wellness, including descriptions

8:38

on proper care, was discussed by Athenian

8:40

soldier Xenophon in his book on Horsemanship,

8:44

and in it he states quote, and just as

8:46

with human beings, so with the horse.

8:48

All diseases are more curable at their

8:50

commencement than after they have become chronic

8:53

or been wrongly treated. He

8:55

also mentioned that horses could have too much

8:57

blood, which would require a veterinary

8:59

doctor or to address. But these were early times.

9:02

We now know you can't have too much blood. Uh.

9:05

A lot of his advice, though it was interesting

9:07

was preventative. He really really advocated

9:10

bolstering the horse's strength and health

9:12

to stave off any issues. Meanwhile,

9:14

in India, King Ashoka opened

9:17

the first animal hospital known in

9:19

the world around to fifty b C.

9:22

He also mandated herbal medicine

9:24

availability for both people and animals,

9:26

and provided for the cultivation of metal

9:28

medically beneficial plants and places

9:31

that lacked them.

9:33

In Rome, both Virgil, writing in the

9:36

first century b C. And Pliny the Elder

9:38

writing in the first century, made mention

9:40

in their written work of ailments that took out

9:42

large numbers of animals, and Columella,

9:45

writing around the same time as Pliny the Elder

9:47

this was around UH the

9:50

year fifty five, wrote a book on animal husbandry

9:53

that discussed disease spread and the necessity

9:55

of isolating sick animals to curtail

9:57

it, stating the diseased must be separate,

10:00

rated from the sound, that not so much as

10:02

one may come among them, which

10:04

may with the contagion, affect the rest.

10:07

Next up, we'll talk about Galen and

10:09

the advances made in our knowledge of

10:11

animal physiology while trying to study

10:13

up on human physiology.

10:16

But first we will pause for a word from

10:18

a sponsor. Galen,

10:27

who lived in the second century, is known primarily

10:29

as a physician rather than a veterinarian,

10:32

but while he was doing the work that would eventually give

10:34

him his historical standing in human medicine,

10:37

he also studied animals, often dissecting

10:39

them as part of his study of anatomy,

10:41

and this was primarily due to the taboo

10:44

over dissection of human corpses. Many

10:47

of the discoveries he made regarding basic

10:49

physiology applied to many species,

10:51

including animals, and those discoveries

10:53

included the carriage of blood by arteries,

10:56

for example, But

10:58

it also meant that he landed at

11:00

conclusions that were really off base, such

11:02

as just writing about the uterus, which

11:05

is based on dogs and consequently

11:07

has some errors. Also,

11:09

just in case you didn't know, the word husbandry

11:12

doesn't refer specifically to breeding. Sometimes

11:14

people use it that way, but it really means a

11:16

general care of animals, which can

11:18

include breathing, breeding for

11:21

healthy lines. One of my favorite things

11:23

that includes is husbandry behaviors

11:25

that you teach animals to make easier treat

11:27

them. Yeah, yeah, it's

11:29

one of those things. Uh many moons

11:31

ago I used to volunteer at the Georgia Aquarium

11:34

in their animal husbandry division, and I would

11:36

say that and people would be like, do you make animals

11:38

mate? And I was like, no, that's not what husbandry means,

11:41

Like we're not we're not actually like marrying

11:44

them.

11:46

There were very weird discussions that would sometimes

11:48

happen. Um. I feel

11:50

like that is a mistake people

11:53

often make when they are

11:56

children or learning language.

11:59

Yeah, if you've never really like looked into,

12:02

you know, animal care beyond

12:04

just like I have a dog and if he didn't take to the vet,

12:07

you may not know that that's what that term means. There's

12:09

no shame in it. It just was charming. The

12:12

sanscrit text known as the artist Shastra,

12:15

written and revised over the course of the second

12:17

century BC through the third century,

12:19

is a political treatise, but it also

12:22

includes the mention of a military practice

12:24

of having a veterinarian travel with armies

12:27

to tend to tired, injured, elderly,

12:29

and sick animals. Circa

12:31

the third century, a Chinese book titled

12:34

pocket Book of Emergency Therapies

12:36

spelled out how to treat horses for a number

12:39

of ailments, including sunstroke,

12:42

which was treated by blood living. Stop

12:44

draining horses people if they don't have too

12:46

much blood. But

12:49

they didn't know, and they were doing the best they

12:51

could with what the knowledge they had, So I was

12:53

more thinking. It is currently about

12:56

eighty seven degrees in the room I'm recording

12:58

in. Please do not drain my blood.

13:02

Maybe you would feel cooler. Writing in the

13:04

fifth century, Vegetius wrote a treatise

13:06

on veterinary medicine. Again, this, like

13:09

much of what we've been discussing up to this point,

13:11

is focused on horses and livestock,

13:14

and while he has been lauded by some as the father

13:16

of veterinary medicine, as a consequence, critics

13:18

point to the derivative nature of his work as

13:21

evidence that he really doesn't deserve that title.

13:24

But the key contribution that he made to animal

13:26

science was integrating the most current

13:28

medical knowledge of his time with an

13:30

approach to the care and treatment of animals.

13:33

And there is, by the way, still some debate about

13:35

whether this is the same Vegetius who also

13:37

wrote military treatises. Some will

13:39

say yes, that's definitely the same person, and

13:42

others to think not

13:44

so much, that it's just two separate people. By

13:48

the seventh century, China had

13:50

a well defined veterinary services system

13:52

and an established school for training veterinarians.

13:55

A book called A Collection of Ways to Care

13:58

For and Treat Horses provided standardized

14:00

information for students and offered information

14:03

that combined all these various learnings

14:05

and treatment therapies that have been described

14:07

in earlier texts. And

14:09

we don't have a great deal of literature regarding

14:12

animal care in the early Middle Ages of Europe,

14:15

though there was certainly study of horse physiology

14:17

and health in Arab occupied

14:19

Spain beginning in the seven hundreds.

14:21

Caring for horses, of course, continued to

14:24

be a significant driver for work in

14:26

veterinary care around the world for

14:28

centuries. Sometime

14:30

prior to the tenth century, a Sanskrit

14:32

text titled Complete Ierbatic System

14:35

for Horses was written by a person

14:37

named Sally Kotra, who went on to

14:39

produce additional books as well, including

14:42

In Praise of Horses and Treatise

14:44

on the Marks of Horses. A Tibetan

14:47

translation of Complete Ierbatic System

14:49

for Horses also appeared in eleventh

14:51

century, and it was translated into Arabic

14:53

in the fourteenth century.

14:56

Yeah that particular text became really popular

14:58

and was used the Law of Different Places.

15:01

And another Sanskrit text with an uncertain

15:03

publication date is the four part ir

15:05

Veda for Elephants, and this treatise

15:08

described serious illness, minor

15:10

ailments, anatomy, surgery and

15:12

medicines and diet for well being for

15:14

elephants. It's a really comprehensive

15:16

guide to elephant care, borrowing advice

15:19

and techniques from earlier centuries and

15:21

incorporating it with newer beliefs and observations.

15:24

And one of the basic ideas present in all of

15:26

the texts we've mentioned from India specifically

15:29

is the importance of preventative care. Cleanliness

15:32

of animals and of their food, with warnings

15:34

against overfeeding, were commonly promoted

15:37

as ways to stave off disease. In

15:39

the early half of the fourteenth century, an Italian

15:42

farrier named Jordana Rufo a

15:44

work that was on horse medicine, and

15:46

this particular volume built to some

15:49

degree on the previous work of Galen, but

15:51

it was written based on his extensive

15:54

work with horses more than anything else.

15:56

He rarely made reference to earlier works

15:58

in this text, instead providing his own

16:01

observations. Also

16:03

issued a lot of the more old

16:06

wives tale style of medicine

16:08

that had been used prior to this time, and

16:10

favored a much more straightforward approach

16:12

to animal care that are allied on evidence

16:15

based conclusions, which is a

16:17

shocker, It's

16:19

not really a shocker. So this was really a big

16:21

step forward. Yeah,

16:24

there were definitely a lot of uh,

16:26

you know, kind of mystical

16:29

style U. There were even some

16:31

horoscope based like animal care

16:34

things that had been going on, and he was like, no,

16:36

no, no, just look at the horse, see what is wrong. Addressed

16:38

the problem we have. We've dropped,

16:41

we've name dropped the podcast saw Bones

16:43

a lot um, but

16:46

they have so many amazing shows

16:48

that are about various treatments,

16:51

largely that came to popularity

16:53

before we really had an evidence

16:55

based system of medicine

16:57

in the West. Yeah. As

17:00

for other parts of the world, there were veterinarian

17:03

texts in the fourteenth century Memlok period

17:05

when the Islamic Empire was in power

17:07

in large portions of Africa and Asia,

17:10

and these even include illustrations

17:12

of horses being given medicine through a tube

17:14

inserted into the animal's mouth, and

17:16

the writing that explained this illustration

17:19

said that this was an effective way to administer

17:21

treatments to resistant animals. Texts

17:23

of Hippocrates and Galen also circulated

17:26

through the Islamic Empire, translated

17:28

into Arabic, and unlike

17:30

European animal care, which focused on

17:32

horses and livestock, it appears

17:35

that in parts of Africa and Asia where

17:37

those texts were available, the ideas

17:39

in them were applied to all kinds of animals, including

17:42

horses and livestock, but also cats and dogs,

17:45

yeah, and even birds. I mean they really it was a

17:47

much more diversified approach

17:50

to caring for animals than just focusing on

17:52

on the working animals of livestock.

17:55

Uh Jos van Gistel, who was a

17:57

Flemish man whose name I've probably butchered,

18:00

who traveled through the Islamic Empire for

18:02

four years in the fourteen eighties, actually

18:04

mentioned a cat shelter in his writings

18:06

about Damascus. This shelter was

18:08

adjacent to a hospital for the poor, and

18:11

to the best of my knowledge and it's it's mentioned

18:13

in several places that this is probably the

18:16

first known cat shelter specifically

18:18

in the world, but there's always the possibility

18:20

there were others that we just haven't didn't

18:22

stumble across in our writings. There

18:25

were also practitioners of animal medicine

18:28

who specialized in things such as horse

18:30

obstetrics. Since horses

18:32

were a vital part of the culture, it makes sense

18:34

that their care might be more specialized than

18:36

the more general medicine practiced

18:38

on other animals. Over

18:40

All, the Islamic Empire had a fairly comprehensive

18:43

approach to caring for animals of all kinds,

18:47

and books on horse care and anatomy continued

18:49

to be produced in Europe during this time as well,

18:52

and the movable type printing press meant that such

18:54

books could be shared with a wider audience than ever

18:56

before. Carlo Ruini

18:58

of Bologna wrote a volume examination

19:01

of equine physiology titled Anatomy

19:03

of the Horse Infirmity and Its Remedies.

19:06

When he wrote it is still a little bit unclear.

19:08

It wasn't published until after his death in fift

19:11

but it was translated and republished throughout

19:14

the sixteen hundreds. Volume

19:16

one of ruin He's in depth of work is

19:18

dedicated to describing equine anatomy,

19:21

while volume two focuses on identifying

19:23

and treating disease. Much of the science

19:25

discussed regarding horse ailments is

19:27

based on the four humors caloric,

19:30

sanguine, phlegmatic, and melancholics. There

19:32

was a lot of work still

19:34

to be done. Yeah,

19:37

again advanced for the time. Uh.

19:39

And it was one of those things where these books that were

19:41

circulating, we're kind of enabling

19:44

people to care for their own animals outside

19:46

of the being necessarily like

19:48

veterinarians. In the late seventeen

19:51

hundreds, Philippe Etienne la Fosse, the son

19:53

of a farrier, wrote a number of books

19:55

about horse care, featuring colored

19:57

plates to illustrate the text, and

20:00

other writers quickly followed with their own

20:02

books about equine health and illness. But

20:04

even though there was more and more information being

20:06

made available in Europe at the time, there was

20:09

still no formalized course of study

20:11

for animal care, remaining

20:13

ahead of Western practices. Asian

20:15

veterinary practices really expanded

20:18

by the mid seventeen hundreds to include

20:20

standardized care of smaller animals

20:22

such as dogs and cats, in addition

20:24

to the larger livestock species. And

20:27

we're about to talk about why and how Europe

20:29

finally established formal veterinary training,

20:32

but before we do, let's pause for a word from

20:34

one of our sponsors. The

20:41

catalyst for veterinary schools

20:43

in Europe was in fact illness.

20:46

As render pest, scabies, pneumonia,

20:48

and other ailments became common enough in their

20:50

outbreaks is to sometimes be described as

20:52

plagues, it became apparent

20:54

that doctors educated and specializing

20:57

in animal care were needed. To

20:59

that end, the first established

21:01

college of veterinary medicine

21:03

opened in Leon, France in seventeen sixty

21:06

one. It was set up in what had once

21:08

been a hotel and then had been converted

21:10

into a house. Students from around

21:13

Europe, which thirty eight of them at all,

21:15

were enrolled when opened. Early

21:17

courses at the college included bisection,

21:20

pharmacy, surgery, and horsemanship,

21:22

among others, and the school was so successful

21:25

that the Leon Veterinary College was made a royal

21:27

school by King Louis the fifteenth.

21:30

Just four years after the school at Leon opened,

21:32

A second was established in out Four, France,

21:35

in seventeen sixty five to meet demand.

21:38

Claude bourge Law, the founder

21:40

of the veterinary school at Leon, had

21:42

taken something of a gamble. Ongoing

21:45

financing of the school was unstable at best

21:47

when it opened, and so One of the ways he proved

21:50

it's worth was putting his students to work

21:52

using their newly acquired knowledge to address

21:55

outbreaks of render pest. After

21:57

only six months, he was able to show quite

21:59

clear only the benefits of their work, which

22:01

is how things took off so quickly. Yeah,

22:04

those students were basically like working actively

22:07

at the same time they were learning, so they were really

22:09

really uh learning on the

22:11

job and helping to address problems that

22:13

were going on in the area around them.

22:16

And this success of the French schools led to the establishment

22:18

of schools throughout Europe. By the end

22:20

of the seventeen seventies, there were veterinary colleges

22:23

in Dresden, Copenhagen, Hanover

22:25

and Vienna. Budapest, Berlin,

22:27

Munich, and London all had veterinary schools

22:30

by the end of the eighteenth century, and from

22:32

there the educational offerings continued

22:34

to expand on the European continent. The

22:37

first veterinary school in North America

22:39

was established in Ontario, Canada in

22:41

eighteen sixty two, so it took almost a

22:43

hundred years before North

22:46

America got its own veterinary college.

22:48

As for the United States, that really wasn't

22:50

until after the Revolutionary War that

22:53

there was enough density in domesticated

22:55

animals for people to see animal based

22:58

disease events and the knee for

23:00

specialized medicine to address them. Colonists

23:03

had managed their own animals up to

23:05

that point, but as the new nation began to grow

23:07

and the animal population grew along with

23:10

it, needs changed. Early

23:12

on, the low prestige jobs of cow

23:14

leach and ferrier developed to see to

23:16

the needs of cows and livestock in the case of

23:18

the cow leach, and horses in the case

23:21

of the farrier, but there was no schooling

23:23

associated with either job. They were largely

23:25

based on intuition and guesswork. In

23:27

sevent an outbreak of Texas

23:30

cattle fever had moved from the south,

23:32

where it was normally seen farther north

23:34

into both Pennsylvania and Maryland, and

23:37

this resulted in the first legislative act

23:40

connected to animal disease in the United States.

23:42

North Carolina's legislature forbade cattle

23:45

that had passed through areas with long

23:47

leaf pine into or

23:49

through their state. While

23:52

it was not yet known that Texas cattle fever

23:54

was caused by a protozoan parasite, the

23:56

connection that ticks were involved had

23:58

been figured out, and ticks were known

24:00

to thrive in long leaf pine forests,

24:03

so that is why if cattle

24:05

had been driven through such forests, they were not allowed

24:07

in North Carolina. Incidentally,

24:09

it would be another century before that protozoan

24:11

cause of Texas cattle fever was identified

24:14

by a pathologist named Theobald Smith.

24:17

But as the United States headed into the eighteen

24:19

hundreds, even though there were no veterinary

24:21

colleges in the country, European educated

24:24

veterinarians offering care of livestock

24:26

started to set up practices. These

24:28

were primarily in metropolitan

24:30

areas along East Coast. Because

24:33

it was a new industry and was unregulated

24:35

in the States, there were plenty of people claiming

24:37

to be veterinarians who had no real schooling

24:40

or credentials to speak of. Yeah,

24:43

there are some pretty disturbing stories,

24:46

uh that I did not include here, but

24:48

you know, basically people showing up and go, yeah, I'm a horse

24:51

dent does don't pull your horse's teeth. Um

24:53

that really may have had some

24:55

practical experience but had no formal training

24:57

at all. The New York College

25:00

of Veterinary Surgeons was established in eighteen

25:02

fifty seven, and from then to the

25:04

early nineteen hundreds, dozens of schools

25:06

open throughout the United States. An additional

25:08

regulation established more consistency

25:11

across all colleges for comprehensive

25:13

training. Between eighteen sixty

25:15

six and nineteen thirty four, twenty

25:18

thousand, seven hundred and sixty two people

25:20

graduated from US veterinary colleges.

25:23

In eighteen sixty three, the American Veterinary

25:26

Medical Association formed after

25:28

a number of veterinarians had been corresponding

25:31

with one another and realized that an official

25:33

affiliation might be beneficial. Forty

25:35

delegates met in New York for the first meeting

25:38

from They were from New York, Massachusetts,

25:40

New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maine, Ohio, and

25:42

Delaware. And

25:45

just as European livestock being

25:47

ravaged by illness led to the birth of the Veterinary

25:49

College, outbreaks of disease among

25:52

animals in the US led to the establishment

25:54

of the Bureau of Animal Industry. After

25:57

decades of fighting off one episodic

25:59

after an another, the b a I was formed

26:01

in eighteen eighty four with the signing

26:03

of the Animal Industry Act by President

26:05

Chester A. Arthur. Since

26:08

anesthesia wasn't used in the treatment

26:10

of humans until the mid eighteen hundreds.

26:13

Animals were definitely not getting yet

26:15

in the West either. Sedatives

26:17

had been used for animals to varying degrees

26:19

in other parts of the globe, though. Many

26:22

of the untrained and unethical people who

26:24

were claiming to be veterinarians in the United

26:26

States were undoubtedly causing many horses

26:29

and other livestock a good deal of trauma.

26:31

Because of all this, it's a clear example

26:33

of how medical Charlottanism was a danger

26:36

to animals as well as to people. In

26:39

nineteen o three, the first woman to graduate

26:41

from veterinary school in the United States

26:44

was doctor Mignon Nicholson, who earned

26:46

her degree from McKillop Veterinary

26:48

College in Chicago, but this didn't

26:51

exactly open the floodgates to women veterinarians.

26:54

In nineteen fifteen, there were a total of four

26:56

women who graduated from US veterinary

26:58

schools and went into this so even

27:00

twelve years later, only four. In

27:03

nineteen o four, China's first

27:05

Western style veterinary medical school

27:07

opened, and its focus was primarily on

27:10

horse care. All this was a move

27:12

toward modernization. In quotation

27:14

marks. Traditional Chinese veterinary

27:16

medicine was also still quite common. On

27:20

October four of nineteen seventeen,

27:22

the U. S. Army Veterinary Corps was

27:24

established. This was not, however, the

27:26

first time animal care was included in parts

27:28

of the U. S. Military. Farriers

27:31

had been army personnel as far back as

27:33

the late seventeen hundreds. On

27:35

December one, nine, Dr

27:38

Eleen Cust became the first woman

27:40

to graduate from the Royal College of Veterinary

27:42

Surgeons, becoming Great Britain's first

27:45

woman veterinarian. She was fifty

27:47

four at the time and had been denied the opportunity

27:50

to sit for her examination examinations

27:52

twenty years prior when she actually

27:54

finished her initial schooling and veterinary

27:56

science in Edinburgh. Yeah,

27:59

she is some and I I would potentially

28:01

like to do as a topic on her own leader. But

28:03

basically she had been working in the field that twenty

28:06

years but had never been allowed to

28:08

actually take her final exams and graduate

28:10

veterinary school, even though she had done all of the

28:12

coursework. In nine nine,

28:15

I ran across this and it struck me as kind

28:17

of fascinating. It was estimated that the cost

28:19

of a veterinary education in a German

28:21

school was around twelve thousand dollars,

28:24

a sum that seems paltry by today's standards,

28:26

but really was a very huge investment at

28:28

the time. During China's Cultural

28:31

Revolution, which we covered a while back

28:33

in a four part series, traditional

28:35

Chinese veterinary medicine as well

28:37

as traditional Chinese medicine for

28:39

people, were banned After the

28:41

Cultural Revolution. However, many practitioners

28:44

of both veterinary medicine and human focused

28:46

medicine once again turned to traditional methods

28:49

to enhance their modern therapies. This

28:51

approach came to be called complementary and alternative

28:54

veterinary medicine or integrated

28:56

medicine. By

28:58

the middle of the twentieth century, veterinary

29:00

schools were well established throughout the globe,

29:03

while World War Two had fostered a surge in

29:05

women working as veterinarians that dropped

29:07

off in the nineteen fifties but then built back

29:09

up over time. Today, there

29:12

are roughly an equal number of women and men

29:14

in veterinary practice in the United States, although

29:16

veterinary schools actually have sev women's

29:20

students. As post World War two

29:22

leisure lifestyles developed, the

29:25

place of pets became a lot more elevated

29:27

in Western culture, and consequently there was a

29:29

significant growth of small animal practices

29:32

to care for beloved household pets. That

29:34

really started in the nineteen fifties where

29:36

most veterinarians prior to that time

29:38

where large animal caregivers. Things began

29:41

to shift to the point where now most veterinary

29:43

school graduates are likely headed into

29:45

small animal practice. In

29:48

the last five decades, the science

29:50

of treating animals has also expanded significantly.

29:53

Today they are specialist veterinarians

29:55

in almost any field you would find for the

29:57

treatment of humans. So dental specialists,

30:00

neurologists, and oncologists are

30:02

all available to provide animals with specialized

30:04

treatment, as well as a host of other specialty

30:06

areas of service. Consequently, it's estimated

30:09

that Americans will spend sixteen

30:11

point sixty two billion dollars

30:14

that is a billion with a B on veterinary

30:16

care in twenty seventeen. Yeah,

30:20

we have come a long way. It's a it's fascinating

30:22

to me to think about, Like I said, when I

30:24

had that discussion with the vet that we saw

30:26

recently, Uh how here

30:29

in the United States, not everywhere,

30:31

but certainly for a lot of people. You

30:34

know, our pets are very sort of pampered and

30:36

fussed over and loved and adored, and

30:38

so it was sort of a good reminder

30:40

to me when she was talking about how no know animals

30:43

there are are there for protection

30:45

of their property and territory and that's pretty

30:47

much it. So it's a good reminder to me that

30:49

like, not everyone is is operating under

30:52

the same circumstances. Yeah, I

30:54

read a really fascinating article recently

30:56

that was about efforts

30:59

to make uh veterinary

31:02

care more available in indigenous

31:04

communities, which sometimes

31:07

have their own uh

31:09

like indigenous practices for caring for animals

31:12

um, and how to find ways to do

31:14

that that are simultaneously respectful um

31:17

and make sure that animals are able to get uh

31:20

like western style care when it's actually

31:22

needed um. Because as

31:24

with a lot of things, there are some

31:26

places where like the

31:28

western style medicine is the

31:30

thing that's going to fix the problem

31:33

um, and times where like the more

31:35

traditional practice is going to be completely

31:38

fine. So uh, that

31:40

was fascinating also. Yeah, one

31:42

of the pieces that I read about

31:45

veterinary medicine and China talked about

31:47

the traditional style of

31:49

treatments that included things like her

31:51

both therapies and acupuncture and other things

31:54

versus modern medicine. And how in some places,

31:56

particularly in more rural or

32:00

US financially abundant

32:02

communities, sometimes they relied on the

32:04

more traditional types because

32:07

they were more cost effective, you

32:09

know, they were much more affordable to people. But that they

32:11

are similarly trying to continue

32:13

to integrate both traditional and modern

32:16

medical practices to kind of create

32:18

a more holistic approach to the whole thing, uh

32:21

and offer options. It's

32:23

really a fascinating uh field

32:26

when you think about that. Like again, I

32:28

think of it as so much of my experience

32:31

comes from Western medicine, and it's

32:33

like, yes, my cat has a problem. We

32:35

don't know what's wrong with his back, let's get an m R

32:37

I. But but that's

32:39

that's not always how everyone thinks, and it's good

32:41

to be reminded of that. Um

32:44

by the way, my cats had an m R I is just fine.

32:49

I won't read a listener mail today, but I have

32:52

a thing. It's kind of a repeat

32:54

offender. And I say that with only love.

32:56

It's not offensive at all. It is from our

32:58

listener, Emmanuel, who I have talked

33:00

about before, because she has sent us

33:02

several amazing parcels of um,

33:05

fantastic French fashion

33:09

periodicals from the past. And

33:12

she sent another parcel and I got it today

33:14

when I got to work. So one of

33:16

the things that was in this is actually really

33:18

really fascinating. It is

33:21

and she blessed her heart did uh

33:24

And I mean not not in the catty southern way,

33:26

but in a genuine bless her heart She's amazing

33:28

way. Um.

33:29

She did

33:31

some leg work on figuring out what this one particular

33:34

little gem was. She

33:37

found this tiny

33:41

children's literature book that

33:44

is from eighteen sixty seven, so

33:46

it's not fashion related, but it is really really

33:49

fascinating. It's beautifully illustrated.

33:53

There are color illustrations.

33:55

They're really really cute. It's not

33:57

very common to find illustrated books that

34:00

old from that period, so not fashion,

34:02

but really amazing. Emmanuel, I feel like I owe

34:04

you greatly. Um, you have have gifted

34:07

us so many wonderful things. She also maybe

34:09

has included some nine

34:11

twenties era la modes for Tracy to

34:14

look at, since Tracy loves that period so much.

34:16

So when you were next in the office, we can

34:18

all the moment getting together,

34:20

so thank you for that. If you would like to write

34:23

to us, you can do so at History podcast

34:25

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anything you're interested in in the search bar, including

34:43

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34:46

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34:48

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34:50

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34:59

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35:01

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35:03

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35:05

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35:07

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35:10

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35:13

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35:17

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35:19

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35:21

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35:28

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