416
ABSTRACTS
preceded his time, and it includes texts on the pathological conditions of ruminants
and pigs. It is clear that at this date cattle were considered mainly from their import-
ance in agriculture and economics ; but Magnon quotes Democrates as saying, " the
causes of nearly all diseases of cattle are unknown ".
Careful rules of hygiene were observed but treatments were mostly unscientific,
such as treating hoof trouble with fermented urine. Powdered snake skin was much
used in prescriptions. The principal causes of disease were held to be excesses of heat,
cold or labour. Fowl and pig excreta were considered very dangerous. A few para-
sitical invasions were recognised, particularly fluke disease, which caused enormous
losses in herds during wet years. External diseases are more adequately dealt with,
but more summarily than in horses. Dislocations due to methods of stabling were
frequent.
Practice of veterinary medicine in antiquity.—There is definite evidence of the
existence of large numbers of professional animal doctors in early times, particularly
among the Egyptians and Sumerians, though at first their duties were mainly surgical,
in which branch they were always more adept than in medicine. Among the Greeks
and Romans, veterinarians were indispensable, being attached to the army cavalry
and transport services, or stationed at the various mail relay posts, they were also in
charge of the beasts destined for the arena and the medical care of domestic animals.
They were always included in the various Emperors' suites and took sixth place among
the twenty-eight technicians attached to the legions.
THE MIDDLE AGES
After the fall of the Roman Empire, much of her old culture remained alive in
Byzantium but some was taken over by her barbarian conquerors themselves. For
instance the Anglo-Saxon kings in England founded three medical schools on Roman
lines and patronized agriculture and cattle breeding, while the Franks bred cows,
sheep and goats and above all the large black pig, and undoubtedly practised a little
animal medicine.
By the ninth century, however, fresh waves of barbarian invasions had plunged
Europe in further warfare and the feudal system subjected the whole continent to in-
cessant fighting, pillage, famine and disease, with disastrous effects upon culture.
In Byzantium alone, the study of medicine was followed and even there was so
subordinated to Christian dogma that it gradually decayed. The triumph of Chris-
tianity in the West meant that for centuries freedom of thought and scientific investi-
gation were punishable as heresy. Even the medical knowledge of the Greeks was
abhorred because it was pagan. Rational medicine ceased to be practised and man-
kind resigned itself to disease, as to other calamities, without evoking other help than the
Will of God. Religious medicine, which we have seen in all ages co-existing with scien-
tific medicine, was in this period substituted for it. Much has been written on the
mystical medicine of the Middle Ages, which appears to have consisted mainly of in-
vocations to particular saints. There were special saints (e.g. St. Antony, St. George,
St. Nicholas) who were supposed to interest themselves particularly in the protection
of animals.