# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Veterinary Science

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​VETERINARY SCIENCE (Lat. veterinarius, an adjective meaning “connected with beasts of burden and draught,” from veterinus, “pertaining to yearlings,” and vitulus, “a calf”), the science, generally, that deals with the conformation and structure of the domesticated animals, especially the horse; their physiology and special racial characteristics; their breeding, feeding and general hygienic management; their pathology, and the preventive and curative, medical and surgical, treatment of the diseases and injuries to which they are exposed; their amelioration and improvement; their relations to the human family with regard to communicable maladies; and the supply of food and other products derived from them for the use of mankind. In this article it is only necessary to deal mainly with veterinary science in its relation with medicine, as other aspects are treated under the headings for the particular animals, &c. In the present edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica the various anatomical articles (see Anatomy for a list of these) are based on the comparative method, and the anatomy of the lower animals is dealt with there and in the separate articles on the animals.
History.
There is evidence that the Egyptians practised veterinary medicine and surgery in very remote times; but it is not until we turn to the Greeks that we obtain any very definite information with regard to the state of veterinary as well as human medicine in antiquity. The writings of Hippocrates (460–377 B.C.) afford evidence of excellent investigations in comparative pathology. Diodes of Carystus, who was nearly a contemporary, was one of the first to occupy himself with anatomy, which he studied in animals. Aristotle, too, wrote on physiology and comparative anatomy, and on the maladies of animals, while many other Greek writers on veterinary medicine are cited or copied from by Varro, Columella and Galen. And we must not overlook Mago of Carthage (200 B.C.), whose work in twenty-eight books was translated into Greek and was largely used by Varro and Columella.
Until after the conquest of Greece the Romans do not appear to have known much of veterinary medicine. Varro (116–28 B.C.) may be considered the first Roman writer who deals with Amongst the Romans. animal medicine in a scientific spirit in his De Re Rustica, in three books, which is largely derived from Greek writers. Celsus is supposed to have written on animal medicine, and Columella (1st century) is credited with having utilized those relating to veterinary science in the sixth and seventh parts of his De Re Rustica, one of the best works of its class of ancient times; it treats not only of medicine and surgery, but also of sanitary measures for the suppression of contagious diseases. From the 3rd century onwards veterinary science had a literature of its own and regular practitioners, especially in the service of the Roman armies (mulomedici, veterinarii). Perhaps the most renowned veterinarian of the Roman empire was Apsyrtus of Bithynia, who in 322 accompanied the expedition of Constantine against the Sarmatians in his professional capacity, and seems to have enjoyed a high and well-deserved reputation in his time. He was a keen observer; he distinguished and described a number of diseases which were badly defined by his predecessors, recognized the contagious nature of glanders, farcy and anthrax, and prescribed isolation for their suppression; he also made interesting observations on accidents and diseases of horses’ limbs, and waged war against certain absurd empirical practices then prevailing in the treatment of disease, indicating rational methods, some of which are still successfully employed in veterinary therapeutics, such as splints for fractures, sutures for wounds, cold water for the reduction of prolapsed vagina, hot baths for tetanus, &c. Not less eminent was Hierocles, the successor of Apsyrtus, whose writings he largely copied, but with improvements and valuable additions, especially in the hygiene and training of horses. Pelagonius, again, was a writer of empirical tendency, and his treatment of disease in general was most irrational. Publius Vegetius (not to be confounded with Flavius Vegetius Renatus, who wrote on the military art) was a popular author of the end of the 5th century, though less distinguished than Apsyrtus, to whom and to Pelagonius he was to a great extent indebted in the preparation of his Mulomedicinia sive Ars Veterinaria. He appears to have been more of a horse-dealer than a veterinary practitioner, and knew next to nothing of anatomy, which seems to have been but little cultivated at that period. He was very superstitious and a believer in the influence of demons and sorcerers; nevertheless, he gives some interesting observations derived from his travels. He had also a good idea of aerial infection, recognized the utility of disinfectants, and describes some operations not referred to by previous writers, such as removal of calculi from the bladder through the rectum, couching for cataract, the extirpation of certain glands, and several serious operations on the horse’s foot. Though inferior to several works written by his predecessors, the Mulomedicina of Vegetius maintained its popularity through many centuries. Of most of the ancient veterinary writers we know little beyond what can be gathered from the citations and extracts in the two great collections of Hippiatrica and Geoponica compiled by order of Constantine Porphyrogenitus in the 10th century.
It is unnecessary to dwell here on the progress of the veterinary art during the middle ages. Towards the close of the medieval period the subject was much cultivated in the cavalry schools of Italy; and Spain also had an organized system of good practitioners in the 15th century, who have left many books still extant. Germany was far behind, and literature on the subject did not exist until the end of the 15th century, when in 1492 there was published anonymously at Augsburg a Pferdearzneibüchlein. In the following century the influence of the Italian writers was becoming manifest, and the works of Fugger and Fayser mark the commencement of a new era. Fayser’s treatises, Von der Gestüterei and Von der Zucht der Kriegs- und Bürger-Pferde (1529-97), are remarkable for originality and good sense. In Great Britain animal medicine was perhaps in a more advanced condition than in Germany, if we accept the evidence of the Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales (London, 1841); yet it was largely made up of the grossest superstitions. Among the Celts the healer of horse diseases and the shoer were held in high esteem, as among the more civilized nations of Europe, and the court farrier enjoyed special privileges. The earliest known works in English appeared anonymously towards the commencement of the 15th century, viz. Propertees and Medcynes for a Horse and Mascal of Oxen, Horses, Sheepes, Hogges, Dogges. The word “mascal” shows that the latter work was in its origin Italian. There is no doubt that in the 15th century the increasing taste for horses and horsemanship brought Italian riding-masters and farriers into England; and it is recorded that Henry VIII. brought over two of these men who had been trained by Grisone in the famous Neapolitan school. The knowledge so introduced became popularized, and assumed a concrete form in Blundeville’s Foure Chiefest Offices belonging to Horsemanship (1566), which contains many references to horse diseases, and, though mainly a compilation, is yet enriched with original observations. In the 15th century the anatomy of the domesticated animals, formerly almost entirely neglected, began to receive attention. A work on comparative anatomy by Volcher Koyter was issued at Nuremberg in 1573; about the same time a writer in Germany named Copho or Cophon published a book on the anatomy of the pig, in which were many original remarks on the lymphatic vessels; and Jehan Hervard in France produced in 1594 his rather incomplete Hippo-Ostéologie. But by far the most notable work, and one hich maintained its popularity for a century and a half, was that of Carlo Ruini, a senator of Bologna, published in 1598 in that city, and entitled Dell’ Anatomia e dell’ Infirmità del Cavallo, e suoi Remedii. Passing through many editions, and translated into French and German, this book was for the most part original, and a remarkable one for the time in which it was composed, the anatomical portion being especially praiseworthy, English books of the 17th century exhibit a strong tendency towards the improvement of veterinary medicine and surgery, especially as regards the horse. This is even more notable in the writings of the 18th century, among which may be particularized Gibson’s Farrier's New Guide (1719), Method of Dieting Horses (1721) and (best of all) his New Treatise on the Diseases of Horses, besides Braken’s, Burdon’s, Bridge’s and Bartlet’s treatises. Veterinary anatomy was greatly advanced by the Anatomy of an Horse (1683) of Snape, farrier to Charles II., illustrated with copper plates, and by the still more complete and original work of Stubbs, the Anatomy of the Horse (1766), which decidedly marked a new era in this line of study. Of foreign works it may suffice to mention that of Solleysel, Véritable parfait maréschal (1664), which passed through many editions, was translated into several languages, and was borrowed from for more than a century by different writers. Sir W. Hope's Compleat Horseman (1696) is a translation from Solleysel by a pupil.
Modern Schools and Colleges.— The most important era in the history of modern veterinary science commenced with the institution of veterinary schools. France was the first to take the greatFrance and Con- tinental Europe. initiative step in this direction. Buffon had recommended the formation of veterinary schools, but his recommendations were not attended to. Claude Bourgelat (1712–1799), an advocate at Lyons and a talented hippologist, through his influence with Bertin, prime minister under Louis XV., was the first to induce the government to establish a veterinary school and school of equitation at Lyons, in 1761. This school he himself directed for only a few years, during which the great benefits that had resulted from it justified an extension of its teaching to other parts of France. Bourgelat, therefore, founded (1766) at Alfort, near Paris, a second veterinary school, which soon became, and has remained to this day, one of the finest and most advanced veterinary schools in the world. At Lyons he was replaced by the Abbé Rozier, a learned agriculturist, who was killed at the siege of Lyons after a very successful period of school management, during which he had added largely to agricultural and physical knowledge by the publication of his Journal de Physique and Cours d’ Agriculture. Twenty years later the Alfort school added to its teaching staff several distinguished professors whose names still adorn the annals of science, such as Dauberton, who taught rural economy; Vic d’Azyr, who lectured on comparative anatomy; Fourcroy, who undertook instruction in chemistry; and Gilbert, one of its most brilliant pupils, who had veterinary medicine and surgery for his department. The last-named was also a distinguished agriculturist and published many important treatises on agricultural as well as veterinary subjects. The position he had acquired, added to his profound and varied knowledge, made him most useful to France during the period of the Revolution. It is chiefly to him that it is indebted for the celebrated Rambouillet flock of Merino sheep, for the conservation of the Tuileries and Versailles parks, and for the creation of the fine experimental agricultural establishment organized in the ancient domain of Sceaux. The Alfort school speedily became the nursery of veterinary science, and the source whence all similar institutions obtained their first teachers and their guidance. A third government school was founded in 1825 at Toulouse; and these three schools have produced thousands of thoroughly educated veterinary surgeons and many professors of high scientific repute, among whom may be named Bouley, Chauveau, Colin, Toussaint, St Cyr, Goubaux, Arloing, Galtier, Nocard, Trasbot, Neumann, Cadiot and Leclainche. The opening of the Alfort school was followed by the establishment of national schools in Italy (Turin, 1769), Denmark (Copenhagen, 1773), Austria (Vienna, 1775), Saxony (Dresden, 1776), Prussia (Hanover, 1778; Berlin, 1790), Bavaria (Munich, 1790), Hungary (Budapest, 1787) and Spain (Madrid, 1793); and soon government veterinary schools were founded in nearly every European country, except Great Britain and Greece, mostly on a munificent scale. Probably all, but especially those of France and Germany, were established as much with a view to training veterinary surgeons for the army as for the requirements of civil life. In 1907 France possessed three national veterinary schools, Germany had six, Russia four (Kharkov, Dorpat, Kazan and Warsaw), Italy six, Spain five, Austria-Hungary three (Vienna, Budapest and Lemberg), Switzerland two (Zürich and Bern), Sweden two (Skara and Stockholm), Denmark, Holland, Belgium and Portugal one each. In 1849 a government veterinary ​school was established at Constantinople, and in 1861 the government of Rumania founded a school at Bucharest. The veterinary schools of Berlin, Hanover and Vienna have been raised to the position of universities.
In 1790 St Bel (whose real name was Vial, St Bel being a village near Lyons, where was his paternal estate), after studying at the Lyons school and teaching both at Alfort and Lyons, came to England and published proposals for founding a schoolUnited Kingdom. in which to instruct pupils in veterinary medicine and surgery. The Agricultural Society of Odiham, which had been meditating sending two young men to the Alfort school, elected him an honorary member, and delegated a committee to consult with him respecting his scheme. Some time afterwards this committee detached themselves from the Odiham Society and formed an institution styled the Veterinary College of London, of which St Bel was appointed professor. The school was to be commenced and maintained by private subscription. In March 1792 arrangements were made for building temporary stabling for fifty horses and a forge for shoeing at St Pancras. The college made rapid progress in public estimation, notwithstanding considerable pecuniary embarrassments. As soon as the building was ready for the reception of animal patients, pupils began to be enrolled; and among the earliest were some who afterwards gained celebrity as veterinarians, as Bloxam, Blaine, R. Lawrence, Field and Bracy Clark. On the death of St Bel in August 1793 there appears to have been some difficulty in procuring a suitable successor; but at length, on the recommendation of John Hunter and Cline, two medical men were appointed, Coleman and Moorcroft, the latter then practising as a veterinary surgeon in London. The first taught anatomy and physiology, and Moorcroft, after visiting the French schools, directed the practical portion of the teaching. Unfortunately, neither of these teachers had much experience among animals, nor were they well acquainted with their diseases; but Coleman (1765-1839) had as a student, in conjunction with a fellow-student (afterwards Sir Astley Cooper), performed many experiments on 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. 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. In 1831 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. 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 progress of veterinary medicine. Yet the Royal Veterinary College (first styled "Royal" during the president ship 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 and augmented in 1886. For fifteen years the Royal Agricultural Society annually voted a sum of £500 towards the expenses of the department of comparative pathology, but in 1902 this grant was reduced to £200.
As the result of representations made to the senate of the university of London by the governors of the Royal Veterinary College, the university in 1906 instituted a degree in veterinary science (B.Sc.). The possession of this degree does not of itself entitle the holder to practise as a veterinary surgeon, but it was hoped that an increasing number of students would, while studying for the diploma of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, also adopt the curriculum which is necessary to qualify for the university examinations and obtain the degree of bachelor of science. To provide equipment for the higher studies required for the university degree, the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries in 1906 made a grant to the college of £800 per annum. At this school post-graduate instruction is given on the principles of bacteriological research, vaccination and protective inoculation, the preparation of toxins and vaccines and the bacteriology of the specific diseases of animals. The London Veterinary School has been the parent of other schools in Great Britain, one of which, the first in Scotland, was founded by Professor Dick, a student under Coleman, and a man of great perseverance and ability. Beginning 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 lime 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 proficiency under the auspices of the Highland and Agricultural Society, was composed of the most distinguished 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 1859 another veterinary school was established in Edinburgh by John Gamgee, and the Veterinary College, Glasgow, was founded in 1863 by James McCall. Gamgee's school was discontinued in 1865; and William Williams established in 1873 the "New Veterinary College", Edinburgh. This school was transferred in 1904 to the university, Liverpool. In 1900 a veterinary school was founded in Dublin.
In 1844 the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (to be carefully distinguished from the Royal Veterinary College) obtained its charter of incorporation. The functions of this body were until 1881 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 Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons obtained its charter of incorporation, a difference arose between the college and Dick, which resulted in the latter seceding altogether from the union that had been established, and forming an independent examining board, the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland granting certificates of proficiency to those students who were deemed competent. This schism operated very injuriously on the progress of veterinary education and on professional advancement, as the competition engendered was of a rather deteriorating nature. After the death of Dick in 1866, the dualism in veterinary licensing was suppressed and the Highland Society ceased to grant certificates. Now there is only one portal of entry into the profession, and the veterinary students of England, Ireland and Scotland must satisfy the examiners appointed by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons before they can practise their profession.
Before beginning their professional studies students of veterinary medicine must pass an examination in general education equivalent in every respect to that required of students of human medicine. The minimum length of the professional training is four years of three terms each, and during that course four searching examinations must be passed before the student obtains his diploma or licence to practise as a veterinary surgeon. The subjects taught in the schools have been increased in numbers conformably with the requirements of ever extending science, and the teaching is more thorough and practical. During the four years' curriculum, besides the preliminary technical training essential to every scientist, the student must study the anatomy and physiology of the domesticated animals, the pathology and bacteriology of the diseases to which these animals are exposed, medicine, surgery, hygiene, dietetics and meat inspection, and learn to know the results of disease as seen post mortem or in the slaughter-house.
In 1881 an act of parliament was 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 misled by empirics and imposters.
In 1876 the college instituted a higher degree than membership—that of fellow (F.R.C.V.S.), which can only be obtained after the graduate has been five years in practice, and by furnishing a thesis and passing a severe written and oral examination on pathology and bacteriology, hygiene and sanitary science, and veterinary medicine and surgery. Only fellows can be elected members of the examining boards for the membership and fellowship diplomas. The graduates of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons registered from its foundation in 1844 until 1907 numbered about 6000.
In the British army a veterinary' service was first instituted at the beginning of the 19th century, when veterinary surgeons with the relative rank of lieutenant were appointed to regiments of Cavalry, the royal artillery and the royal wagon train. After the Crimean War, and consequent on the abolition of the East India Company (which then possessed its own veterinary service), the number of veterinary surgeons employed was increased, and in 1878 they were constituted a "department," with distinctive uniform, instead of being regimental officers as was previously the case. At the same time they were all brought on to a general roster for foreign service, so that every one in turn has to serve abroad. In 1903 the officers of the department were given substantive rank, and in 1904 were constituted a "corps," with a small number of non-commissioned officers and men under their command and specially trained by them. In 1907 the Army Veterinary Corps consisted of 167 officers and 220 ​non-commissioned officers and men. The men are stationed at the veterinary hospitals, Woolwich depot, Aldershot, Bulford and the Curragh, but when trained are available for duty under veterinary officers at any station, and a proportion of them are employed at the various hospitals in South Africa. Owing to their liability to service abroad in rotation, it follows that every officer spends a considerable portion of his service in India, Burma, Egypt or South Africa. Each tour abroad is five years, and the average length of service abroad is about one-half the total. This offers a wide and varied field for the professional activities of the corps, but naturally entails a corresponding strain on the individuals. Commissions as lieutenants are obtained by elimination, the candidates having previously qualified as members of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. Promotion to captain and major is granted at five and fifteen years' service respectively, and subsequently, by selection, to lieutenant-colonel and colonel, as vacancies occur. The director general has the honorary-rank of major-general.
The Indian civil veterinary department was at first recruited from the A. V . Corps, but candidates who qualified as members of India. the R.C.V.S. were subsequently granted direct appointments by the India Office, by selection. The service is paid and pensioned on the lines of the other Indian civil services, and offers an excellent professional career to those whose constitution permits them to live in the tropics. The work comprises the investigation of disease in animals and the management of studs and farms, in addition to the clinical practice which falls to the share of all veterinary surgeons.
In India there are schools for the training of natives as veterinary surgeons in Bombay, Lahore, Ajmere and Bengal. The courses extend over two and three years, and the instruction is very thorough. The professors are officers of the Indian civil veterinary department, and graduates are given subordinate appointments in that service, or find ready employment in the native cavalry or in civil life.
In the United States of America, veterinary science made very slow progress until 1884, when the Bureau of Animal Industry United States. was established in connexion with the Department of Agriculture at Washington. The immediate cause of the formation of the bureau was the urgent need by the Federal government of official information concerning the nature and prevalence of animal diseases, and of the means required to control and eradicate them, and also the necessity of having an executive agency to carry out the measures necessary to stop the spread of disease and to prevent the importation of contagion into the country, as well as to conduct investigations through which further knowledge might be obtained. In 1907 the bureau consisted of ten divisions, employing the services of 815 veterinary surgeons. It deals with the investigation, control and eradication of contagious diseases of animals, the inspection and quarantine of live stock, horse-breeding, experiments in feeding, diseases of poultry and the inspection of meat and dairy produce. It makes original investigations as to the nature, cause and prevention of communicable diseases of live stock, and takes measures for their repression, frequently in conjunction with state and territorial authorities. It prepares tuberculin and mallein, and supplies these substances free of charge to public health officers, conducts experiments with immunizing agents, and prepares vaccines, sera and antitoxins for the protection of animals against disease. It prepares and publishes reports of scientific investigations and treatises on various subjects relating to live stock. The diseases which claim most attention are Texas fever, sheep scab, cattle mange, venereal disease of horses, tuberculosis of cattle and pigs, hog cholera, glanders, anthrax, black-quarter, and parasitic diseases of cattle, sheep and horses. The effect of the work of the bureau on the health and value of farm animals and their products is well known, and the people of the United States now realize the immense importance of veterinary science.
Veterinary schools were established in New York City in 1846, Boston in 1848, Chicago in 1883, and subsequently in Kansas City and elsewhere, but these, like those of Great Britain, were private institutions. The American Veterinary College, N.Y., founded in 1875, is connected with New York University, and the N.Y. State Veterinary College forms a department of Cornell University at Ithaca. Other veterinary schools attached to state universities or agricultural colleges are those in Philadelphia. Pa.; Columbus, Ohio; Ames, Iowa; Pullman, Washington; Auburn, Alabama; Manhattan, Kansas: and Fort Collins, Colorado. Other veterinary colleges are in San Francisco; Washington, D.C. (two); Grand Rapids, Michigan; St Joseph, Missouri; and Cincinnati, Ohio.
In Canada a veterinary school was founded at Toronto in 1862, and four years later another school was established at Montreal. Canada. For some years the Montreal school formed a department of McGill University, but in 1902 the veterinary branch was discontinued. Veterinary instruction in French is given by the faculty of comparative medicine at Laval University. The Canadian Department of Agriculture possesses a fully equipped veterinary sanitary service employing about 400 qualified veterinary surgeons as inspectors of live stock, meat and dairy produce.
In the Australian commonwealth there is only one veterinary school, which was established in Melbourne, Victoria, in 1888. The Public Health Departments of New South Wales, Australia. Western Australia, Tasmania and the other states employ qualified veterinary surgeons as inspectors of live stock, cowsheds, meat and dairy produce.
There is no veterinary school in New Zealand, but the Department of Agriculture has arranged to establish one at Wellington in connexion with the investigation laboratory and farm New Zealand. of the division of veterinary science at Wallaceville. The government employs about forty qualified veterinarians as inspectors of live stock, abattoirs, meat-works and dairies.
In Egypt a veterinary school with French teachers was founded in 1830 at Abu-Zabel, near Cairo, by Clot Bey, a doctor of medicine. This school was discontinued in 1842. The Public Health Egypt. Department in 1901 established at Cairo a new veterinary school for the instruction of natives. Ten qualified veterinary surgeons are employed in the sanitary service.
Each of the colonies Natal, Cape Colony, Transvaal, Orange River Colony, Swaziland, Bechuanaland and Rhodesia has a veterinary sanitary police service engaged in dealing with the South Africa. contagious diseases of animals. Laboratories for the investigation of disease and the preparation of antitoxins and protective sera have been established at Grahamstown, Pretoria and Pietermaritzburg.
Characteristics of Veterinary Medicine.
Veterinary medicine has been far less exposed to the vagaries of theoretical doctrines and 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 treatment 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, Rasori, 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 prevention, and this is now considered the most important object in connexion with veterinary science. More especially is this the case with those contagious disorders that depend for their existence and extension upon the presence of an infecting agent, and whose ravages for so many centuries are written largely in the history of civilization. Every advance made in human medicine affects the progress of veterinary science, and the invaluable investigations of Davaine, Pasteur, Chauveau, Lister and Koch have created as great a revolution in veterinary practice as in the medicine of man. In "preventive medicine" the benefits derived from the application of the germ theory are now realized to be immense; and the sanitary police measures based on this knowledge, if carried rigorously into operation, must eventually lead to the extinction of animal plagues. Bacteriology has thrown much light on the nature, diagnosis and, cure of disease both in man and animals, and it has developed the beneficent practice of aseptic and antiseptic surgery, enabling the practitioner to prevent exhausting suppuration and wound infection with its attendant septic fever, to ensure the rapid healing of wounds, and to undertake the more serious operations with greater confidence of a successful result.
The medicine of the lower animals differs from that of man in no particular so much, perhaps, as in the application it makes of utilitarian principles. The life of man is sacred; but in the case of animals, when there are doubts as to complete restoration to health or usefulness, pecuniary considerations generally decide against the adoption of remedial measures. This feature in the medicine of domesticated animals brings very prominently before us the value of the old adage that "prevention is better than cure." In Great Britain the value of ​veterinary pathology in the relations it bears to human medicine, to the public health and wealth, as well as to agriculture, has not been sufficiently appreciated; and in consequence but little allowance has been made for the difficulties with which the practitioner of animal medicine has to contend. The rare instances in which animals can be seen by the veterinary surgeon in the earliest stages of disease, and when this would prove most amenable to medical treatment; delay, generally due to the inability of those who have the care of animals to perceive these early stages; the fact that animals cannot, except in a negative manner, tell their woes, describe their sensations or indicate what and where they suffer; the absence of those comforts and conveniences of the sick-room which cannot be called in to ameliorate their condition; the violence or stupor, as well as the attitude and structural peculiarities of the sick creatures, which only too frequently render favourable positions for recovery impossible; the slender means generally afforded for carrying out recommendations, together with the oftentimes intractable nature of their diseases; and the utilitarian influences alluded to above—all these considerations, in the great majority of instances, militate against the adoption of curative treatment, or at least greatly increase its difficulties. But notwithstanding these difficulties, veterinary science has made greater strides since 1877 than at any previous period in its history. Every branch of veterinary knowledge has shared in this advance, but in none has the progress been so marked as in the domain of pathology, led by Nocard in France, Schtitz and Kitt in Germany, Bang in Denmark, and McFadyean in England. Bacteriological research has discovered new diseases, has revolutionized the views formerly held regarding many others, and has pointed the way to new methods of prevention and cure. Tuberculosis, anthrax, black-quarter, glanders, strangles and tetanus furnish ready examples of the progress of knowledge concerning the nature and causation of disease. These diseases, formerly attributed to the most varied causes—including climatic changes, dietetic errors, peculiar condition of the tissues, heredity, exposure, close breeding, overcrowding and even spontaneous origin—have been proved beyond the possibility of doubt to be due to infection by specific bacteria or germs.
In the United Kingdom veterinary science has gained distinction by the eradication of contagious animal diseases. For many years prior to 1865, when a government veterinary department was formed, destructive plagues of animals had prevailed almost continuously in the British islands, and scarcely any attempt had been made to check or extirpate them. Two exotic bovine diseases alone (contagious pleuro-pneumonia or lung plague and foot-and-mouth disease) are estimated to have caused the death, during the first thirty years of their prevalence in the United Kingdom, of 5,549,780 cattle, roughly valued at £83,616,854; while the invasion of cattle plague (rinderpest) in 1865–66 was calculated to have caused a money loss of from £5,000,000 to £8,000,000. The depredations made in South Africa and Australia by the lung plague alone are quite appalling; and in India the loss brought about by contagious diseases among animals has been stated at not less than £6,000,000 annually. The damage done by tuberculosis contagious disease of cattle, transmissible to other animals and to man by means of the milk and flesh of diseased beasts—cannot be even guessed at; but it must be enormous considering how widely this malady is diffused. But that terrible pest of all ages, cattle plague, has been promptly suppressed in England with comparatively trifling loss. Foot-and-mouth disease, which frequently proved a heavy infliction to agriculture, has been completely extirpated. Rabies may now be included, with rinderpest, lung plague and sheep-pox, in the category of extinct diseases; and new measures have been adopted for the suppression of glanders and swine fever. To combat such diseases as depend for their continuance on germs derived from the soil or herbage, which cannot be directly controlled by veterinary sanitary measures, recourse has been had to protective inoculation with attenuated virus or antitoxic sera. The Board of Agriculture and Fisheries has an efficient staff of trained veterinary inspectors, who devote their whole time to the work in connexion with the scheduled diseases of animals, and are frequently employed to inquire into other diseases of an apparently contagious nature, where the circumstances are of general importance to agriculturists.
Veterinary science can offer much assistance in the study and prevention of the diseases to which mankind are liable. Some grave maladies of the human species are certainly derived from animals, and others may yet be added to the list. In the training of the physician great benefit would be derived from the study of disease in animals—a fact which has been strangely overlooked in England, as those can testify who understand how closely the health of man may depend upon the health of the creatures he has domesticated and derives subsistence from, and how much more advantageously morbid processes can be studied in animals than in our own species.
Although as yet few chairs of comparative pathology have been established in British universities, on the European continent such chairs are now looked upon as almost indispensable to every university. Bourgelat, towards the middle of the 18th century, in speaking of the veterinary schools he had been instrumental in forming, urged that "leurs portes soient saus cesse ouvertes à ceux qui, chargés par l'état de la conservation des hommes, auront acquis par le nom qu'ils se seront fait le droit d'interroger la nature, chercher des analogies, et vérifier des idées dont la conformation ne peut être qu'utile a l'espèce humaine." And the benefits to be mutually derived from this association of the two branches of medicine inspired Vicq d'Azyr to elaborate his Nouveau plan de la constitution de la médecine en France, which he presented to the National Assembly in 1790. His fundamental idea was to make veterinary teaching a preliminary (le premier degré) and, as it were, the principle of instruction in human medicine. His proposal went so far as to insist upon a veterinary school being annexed to every medical college established in France. This idea was reproduced in the Rapport sur l'instruction publique which Talleyrand read before the National Assembly in 1790. In this project veterinary teaching was to form part of the National Institution at Paris. The idea was to initiate students of medicine into a knowledge of diseases by observing those of animals. The suffering animal always appears exactly as it is and feels, without the intervention of mind obscuring the symptomatology, the symptoms being really and truly the rigorous expression of its diseased condition. From this point of view, the dumb animal, when it is ill, offers the same difficulties in diagnosis as does the ailing infant or the comatose adult.
Of the other objects of veterinary science there is only one to which allusion need here be made: that is the perfectioning of the domestic animals in everything that is likely to make them more valuable to man. This is in an especial manner the province of this science, the knowledge of the anatomy, physiology and other matters connected with these animals by its students being essential for such improvement.
Diseases of Domestic Animals.
Considerations of space forbid a complete or detailed description of all the diseases, medical and surgical, to which the domesticated animals are liable. Separate articles are devoted to the principal plagues, or murrains, which affect animals—Rinderpest, Foot-and-Mouth Disease, Pleuro-Pneumonia, Anthrax, &c. Reference will be made here only to the more important other disorders of animals which are of a communicable nature.
Diseases of the Horse.
Every horseman should know something of the injuries, lamenesses and diseases to which the horse is liable.Unfortunately not very much can be done in this direction by book instruction; indeed, there is generally too much doctoring and too little nursing of sick animals. Even in slight and favourable cases of illness recovery is often retarded by too zealous and injudicious medication; the object to be always kept in view in the treatment of animal patients is to place them in those conditions which allow nature to ​operate most freely in restoring health. This can best be rendered in the form of nursing, which sick animals greatly appreciate. However indifferent a horse may be to caressing or kind attention Nursing. during health, when ill he certainly appreciates both, and when in pain will often apparently endeavour to attract notice and seek relief from those with whom he is familiar. Fresh air and cleanliness, quiet and comfort, should always be secured, if possible. The stable or loose-box should be warm, without being close, and free from draughts. If the weather is cold, and especially if the horse is suffering from inflammation of the air-passages, it may be necessary to keep up the temperature by artificial means; but great care should be taken that this does not render the air too dry to breathe. The surface of the body can be kept warm by rugs, and the legs by woollen bandages. Yet a sick horse is easily fatigued and annoyed by too much clothing, and therefore it is better to resort to artificial heating of the stable than to overload the body or impede movement by heavy wrappings. If blankets are used, it is well to place a cotton or linen sheet under them, should the horse have an irritable skin. For bedding, long straw should be employed as little as possible, since it hampers movement. Clean old litter, sawdust or peat-moss litter is the best. If the hoofs are strong, and the horse likely to be confined for some weeks, it affords relief to take off the shoes. Tying up should be avoided, if possible, unless it is urgently required, the horse being allowed to move about or lie down as he may prefer.
When a sick horse has lost his appetite, he should be tempted to eat by offering him such food as will be enticing to him. It should Food for a sick horse. be given frequently and in small quantities, but should not be forced on him; food will often be taken if offered from the hand, when it will not be eaten out of the manger. Whether the animal be fed from a bucket or from a manger, any food that is left should be thrown away, and the receptacle well cleaned out after each meal. As a rule, during sickness a horse requires laxative food, in order to allay fever or inflammatory symptoms, while supporting the strength. The following list comprises the usual laxative foods employed: green grass, green wheat, oats and barley, lucerne, carrots, parsnips, gruel, bran mash, linseed and bran mash, boiled barley, linseed tea, hay tea and linseed oil. Green grass, lucerne, and similar articles of food if cut when in a wet state, should be dried before being given. Boiled grain should be cooked with very little water, so that it may be floury and comparatively dry when ready; a little salt should be mixed with it. One gallon of good gruel may be made with a pound of meal and cold water, which should be stirred till it boils, and afterwards permitted to simmer over a gentle fire till the fluid is quite thick. To make a bran mash, scald a stable bucket, throw out the water, put in 3 ℔ of bran and 1 oz. of salt, add 2½ pints of boiling water, stir up well, cover over and allow the mash to stand for fifteen or twenty minutes until it is well cooked. For a bran and linseed mash, boil slowly for two or three hours 1 ℔ of linseed, so as to have about a couple of quarts of thick fluid, to which 2 ℔ of bran and 1 oz. of salt may be added. The whole should be stirred up, covered over and allowed to steam as before described. The thicker the mash the more readily will the horse eat it. Linseed tea is made by boiling 1 ℔ of linseed in a couple of gallons of water until the grains are quite soft. It may be economically made by using less water to cook the linseed, and afterwards making up the quantity of water to about a gallon and a half. Hay tea may be prepared by filling a bucket, after scalding it, with good sweet hay, pouring in as much boiling water as the bucket will hold, covering it over, and allowing it to stand until cold, when the fluid may be strained off and given to the horse. This forms a refreshing drink. Linseed oil, in quantities of from 1 oz. to 6 oz. daily, may be mixed with the food; it keeps the bowels in a lax condition, has a good effect on the skin and air passages, and is useful as an article of diet. When debility has to be combated, as in low fever or other weakening diseases, strengthening and other easily digested food must be administered, though some of the foods already mentioned, such as boiled grain, answer this purpose to a certain extent. Milk, eggs, bread and biscuits, malt, corn, &c., are often prescribed with this object. Milk may be given skimmed or unskimmed; a little sugar may be mixed with it; and one or two gallons may be given daily, according to circumstances. One or two eggs may be given beaten up with a little sugar and mixed with milk, three or four times a day, or more frequently; or they may be boiled hard and powdered, and mixed in the milk. A quart of stout, ale or porter may be given two or three times a day, or a half to one bottle of port wine daily. Scalded oats, with a little salt added, are very useful when convalescence is nearly completed. As a rule, a sick horse should have as much water as he likes to drink, though it may be necessary in certain cases to restrict the quantity, and to have the chill taken off; but it should never be wanner than 75° to 80°.
As little grooming as possible should be allowed when a horse is very weak; it should be limited to sponging the mouth, nostrils, eyes and forehead with clean water, to which a little eucalyptus or sanitas may be added. Rub the legs and ears with the hand, take off the clothing, and shake or change it once a day, and if agreeable rub over the body with a soft cloth. Exercise is of course not required during sickness or injury, and the period at which it is allowed will depend upon circumstances. Care must be taken that it is not ordered too early, or carried too far at first.
Much care is required in administering medicines in the form of ball or bolus; and practice, as well as courage and tact, is needed Administration of medicine. in order to give it without danger to the administrator or the animal. The ball should be held between the fingers of the right hand, the tips of the first and fourth being brought together below the second and third, which are placed on the upper side of the ball; the right hand is thus made as small as possible, so as to admit of ready insertion into the mouth. The left hand grasps the horse's tongue, gently pulls it out and places it on that part of the right side of the lower jaw which is bare of teeth. With the right hand the ball is placed at the root of the tongue. The moment the right hand is withdrawn, the tongue should be released. This causes the ball to be carried still farther back. The operator then closes the mouth and watches the left side of the neck, to note the passage of the ball down the gullet. Many horses keep a ball in the mouth a considerable time before they will allow it to go down. A mouthful of water or a handful of food will generally make them swallow it readily. It is most essential to have the ball moderately soft; nothing can be more dangerous than a hard one.
To administer a drink or drench requires as much care as giving a ball, in order to avoid choking the horse, though it is unattended with risk to the administrator. An ordinary glass or stone bottle may be used, providing there are no sharp points around the mouth; but either the usual drenching-horn or a tin vessel with a narrow mouth or spout is safer. It is necessary to raise the horse's head, so that the nose may be a little higher than the horizontal line. The drink must be given by a person standing on the right side (the attendant being in front or on the left side of the horse), the cheek being pulled out a little, to form a sack or funnel, into which the medicine is poured, a little at a time, allowing an interval now and again for the horse to swallow. If any of the fluid gets into the windpipe (which it is liable to do if the head is held too high), it will cause coughing, whereupon the head should be instantly lowered. Neither the tongue nor the nostrils should be interfered with. Powders may be given in a little mash or gruel, well stirred up, or in the drinking water.
If a wide surface is to be fomented (as the chest, abdomen or loins), a blanket or other large woollen cloth should be dipped in water as hot as the hand can comfortably bear it, moderately wrung out and applied to the part, the heat and moisture being retained by covering it with a waterproof sheet or dry rug. When it has lost some of its heat, it should be removed, dipped in warm water and again applied. In cases of acute inflammation, it may be necessary to have the water a little hotter; and, to avoid the inconvenience of removing the blanket, or the danger of chill when it is removed, it may be secured round the body by skewers or twine, the hot water being poured on the outside of the top part of the blanket by any convenient vessel. To foment the feet, they should be placed in a bucket or tub (the latter with the bottom resting wholly on the ground) containing warm water; a quantity of moss litter put in the tub or bucket prevents splashing and retains the heat longer. Poultices are used for allaying pain, softening horn or other tissues, and, when antiseptic, cleansing and promoting healthy Poultices. action in wounds. To be beneficial they should be large and always kept moist. For applying poultices to the feet, a piece of sacking, or better a poultice-boot, supplied by saddlers, may be used with advantage. Poultices are usually made with bran, though this has the disadvantage of drying quickly, to prevent which it may be mixed with linseed meal or a little linseed oil. Antiseptic poultices containing lysol, izal, carbolic acid or creolin, are very useful in the early treatment of foul and punctured wounds. A charcoal poultice is sometimes employed when there is an offensive smell to be got rid of. It is made by mixing linseed meal with boiling water and stirring until a soft mass is produced; with this some wood charcoal in powder is mixed, and when ready to be applied some more charcoal is sprinkled on the surface. It may be noted that, in lieu of these materials for poultices, spongiopiline can be usefully employed. A piece of sufficient size is steeped in hot water, applied to the part, covered with oiled silk or waterproof sheeting, and secured by tapes. Even an ordinary sponge, steeped in hot water and covered with waterproof material, makes a good poulticing medium; it is well adapted for the throat, the space between the branches of the lower jaw, as well as for the lower joints of the limbs.
Enemata or clysters are given in fevers, constipation, colic, &c., to empty the posterior part of the bowels. They can be administered Enemata or clysters. by a large syringe capable of containing a quart or more of water, with a nozzle about 12 in. long, or by a large funnel with a long nozzle at a right angle. Water, soap and water, or oil may be employed. To administer an enema, one of the horse's fore feet should be held up, while the operator introduces the nozzle, smeared with oil or lard, very gently and steadily into the rectum, then injects the water. The quantity injected will depend on the nature of the malady and the size of the horse; from 2 or 3 quarts to several gallons may be used.
​The epizootic diseases affecting the horse are not numerous, and may generally be considered as specific and infectious or contagious Epizootic and contagious diseases. in their nature, circumstances of a favourable kind leading to their extension by propagation of the agent upon which their existence depends. This agent, in most of the maladies, has been proved to be a micro-organism, and there can be little doubt that it is so for all of them.
Glanders (q.v.), or equinia, one of the most serious maladies of the horse, ass and mule, prevails in nearly every part of the world. Glanders: farcy. It is a contagious, inoculable disease, caused by the bacillus mallei, and specially affects the lungs, respiratory mucous membrane and the lymphatic system. The virulent agent of glanders appears to establish itself most easily among horses kept in foul, crowded, badly ventilated stables, or among such as are over-worked, badly fed or debilitated. Glanders, however, is always due to contagion, and in natural infection it may be contracted by inhalation of the bacilli, by ingestion of the virus with food or water, or by inoculation of a wound of the skin or a mucous membrane. Carnivorous animals—lions, tigers, dogs and cats—have become infected through eating the flesh of glandered horses; and men attending diseased horses are liable to be infected, especially if they have sores on the exposed parts of their bodies. Though in man infection through wounds is the readiest way of receiving the disease, the bacillus may also obtain access through the digestive organs, the lungs and mucous membranes of the eyes, nose and lips.
In descriptions of the equine disease sometimes a distinction is made between glanders with nasal ulcers and other symptoms of respiratory disease, and glanders of the skin, or farcy, but there is no essential difference between them. Glanders and farcy are due to the same causal organism, and both may be acute or chronic. Acute glanders is always rapidly fatal, and chronic glanders may become acute or it may terminate by apparent recovery.
The symptoms of acute glanders are initial fever with its accompaniments, thirst, loss of appetite, hurried pulse and respiration, emaciation, languor and disinclination to move. Sometimes the legs or joints are swollen and the horse is stiff; but the characteristic symptoms are a greyish-yellow viscid discharge from one or both nostrils, a peculiar enlarged and nodulated condition of one or both submaxillary lymphatic glands, which though they may be painful very rarely suppurate, and on the nasal membrane small yellow pimples or pustules, running into deep, ragged-edged ulcers, and sometimes on the septum large patches of deep ulceration. The discharge from the nose adheres to the nostrils and upper lip, and the infiltrated nasal lining, impeding breathing, causes snuffling and frequent snorting. The lymphatic vessels of the face are often involved and appear as painful subcutaneous “cords” passing across the cheek. These vessels sometimes present nodules which break and discharge a glutinous pus. As the disease progresses, the ulcers on the nose increase in number, enlarge or become confluent, extend in depth and sometimes completely perforate the septum. The nasal discharge, now more abundant and tenacious, is streaked with blood and offensive, the respiration is noisy or roaring, and there may be coughing with bleeding from the nose. Painful oedematous swellings appear on the muzzle, throat, between the fore legs, at the flank or on the limbs, and “farcy buds” may form on some of the swollen parts. Symptoms of congestion of the lungs, or pneumonia and pleurisy, with extreme prostration, diarrhoea and gasping respiration, precede death, which is due to asphyxia or to exhaustion.
Chronic or latent glanders generally presents few definite symptoms. The suspected animal may have a discharge from the nose, or an enlarged submaxillary gland, or both, and small unbroken nodules may exist on the septum, but usually there is no visible ulceration of the nasal membrane. In some horses suspicion of glanders may be excited by lameness and sudden swelling of a joint, by profuse staling, sluggishness, loss of condition and general unthriftiness, or by refusal of food, rise of temperature, swollen fetlocks, with dry hacking cough, nasal catarrh and other symptoms of a common cold. With rest in the stable the horse improves, but a one-sided nasal discharge continues, the submaxillary gland enlarges, and, after an interval, ulcers appear in the nose or “farcy buds” form on a swollen leg. In occult glanders the horse may appear to be in good health and be able to perform ordinary work. In these cases the existence of glanders can only be discovered by resorting to inoculation or the malleia test.
In cutaneous glanders, or farcy, symptoms occur on the skin of a limb, usually a hind one, or on the body, where the lymphatics become inflamed and ulcerated. The limb is much swollen, and the animal moves with pain and difficulty. The lymphatic vessels appear as prominent lines or “cords,” hard and painful on manipulation, and along their course arise nodular swellings—the so-called “farcy buds.” These small abscesses break and discharge a yellow, glutinous, blood-stained pus, leaving sores which heal very slowly. There is a rise of temperature with other symptoms of constitutional disturbance.
Medical treatment of glanders or farcy should not be attempted. The disease is dealt with under the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Acts. Horses which present suspicious symptoms, or those which have been in contact, or have stood in the same stable with glandered horses, should be isolated and tested with mallein. Animals which are found affected should immediately be destroyed, and their harness, clothing and the utensils employed with them thoroughly cleansed, while the stalls, horse-boxes and places which the horses have frequented should be disinfected. Forage left by glandered horses should be burned or fed to cattle.
Mallein, which is almost indispensable in the diagnosis of latent glanders, was discovered in 1888 by Helman, a Russian military veterinary surgeon, and the first complete demonstration of its diagnostic value was given in 1891 by Kalning, also of Russia. Mallein, prepared for the diagnosis of glanders in animals, is the sterilized and filtered liquid-culture of glanders bacilli. It therefore does not contain even dead bacilli, but it has in solution certain substances which are added to the liquid by the bacilli during their growth (McFadyean). Employed under proper precautions and subcutaneously injected in a glandered horse, mallein causes a marked rise of temperature and an extensive painful swelling at the seat of injection.
Epizootic lymphangitis is a contagious eruptive disease of the horse caused by the cryptococcus farciminosus, and characterized Epizootic lymphangitis. by nodular swellings and suppuration of the superficial lymphatics. Infection can be transmitted by mediate or immediate contagion. The eruption usually appears on the limbs, but it may occur on the body or on the head and neck. The symptoms closely resemble those of cutaneous glanders or farcy, from which this disease may readily be distinguished by microscopic examination of the pus discharged from the sores, or by testing the horse with mallein. Glanders and epizootic lymphangitis may coexist in the same animal. It is a scheduled disease, and treatment should not be attempted.
Strangles is a specific contagious eruptive fever peculiar to horses, and is more especially incidental to young animals. It is particularly Strangles. characterized by the formation of abscesses in the lymphatic glands, chiefly those between the branches of the lower jaw (submaxillary). Various causes have been ascribed for its production, such as change of young horses from field to stable, from to dry feeding, from idleness to hard work, irritation of teething, and change of locality and climate. But the sole cause is infection by the strangles streptococcus. Languor and feverishness, diminution of appetite, cough, redness of the nasal membrane, with discharge from the eyes and nose, and thirst are among the earliest symptoms. Then there is difficulty in swallowing, coincident with the development of swelling between the branches of the lower jaw, which often causes the water in drinking to be returned through the nose and the masticated food to be dropped from the mouth. The swelling is hot and tender, diffused, and uniformly rounded and smooth; at first it is hard, with soft, doughy margins; but later it becomes soft in the centre, where an abscess is forming, and soon “points” and bursts, giving exit to a quantity of pus. Relief is now experienced by the animal; the symptoms subside, and recovery takes place. In some cases the swelling is so great or occurs so close to the larynx that the breathing is interfered with, and even rendered so difficult that suffocation is threatened. In other cases the disease assumes an irregular form, and the swelling, instead of softening in the centre, remains hard for an indefinite time, or it may subside and abscesses form in various parts of the body, sometimes in vital organs, as the brain, lungs, liver, kidneys, &c., or in the bronchial or mesenteric glands, where they generally produce serious consequences. Not unfrequently a pustular eruption accompanies the other symptoms. The malady may terminate in ten days or be protracted for months, sometimes terminating fatally from complications, even when the animal is well nursed a kept in a healthy stable.
Good nursing is the chief part of the treatment. The strength should be maintained by soft nutritious food, and the body kept warm and comfortable; the stable or loose-box must have plenty of fresh air and be kept clean. The swelling may be fomented with warm water or poulticed. The poultice may be a little bag containing bran and linseed meal mixed with hot water and applied warm to the tumefaction, being retained there by a square piece of calico, with holes for the ears and eyes, tied down the middle of the face and behind the ears. If the breathing is disturbed and noisy, the animal may be made to inhale steam from hot water in a bucket or from bran mash. If the breathing becomes very difficult, the windpipe must be opened and a tube inserted. Instead of the swelling being poulticed, a little blistering ointment is sometimes rubbed over it, which hastens pointing of the abscess. When the abscess points, it may be lanced, though sometimes it is better to allow it to break spontaneously.
It is important to distinguish strangles from glanders, and the distinction can, with certainty, be ascertained by resorting to the mallein test for glanders, or by microscopical examination of the pus from the strangles abscess.
Under influenza several diseases are sometimes included, and in different invasions it may (and doubtless does) assume varying Influenza. forms. It is a specific fever of a low or asthenic type, associated with inflammation of the mucous membrane lining the air-passages, and also sometimes with that of ​other organs. At various times it has prevailed extensively over different parts of the world, more especially during the 18th and 19th centuries. Perhaps one of the most widespread outbreaks recorded was that of 1872, on the American continent. It usually radiates from the district in which it first appears. The symptoms have been enumerated as follows: sudden attack, marked by extreme debility and stupor, with increased body-temperature, quick weak pulse, rigors and cold extremities. The head is pendent, the eyelids swollen and half closed, eyes lustreless, and tears often flowing down the face. There is great disinclination to move; the body sways on the animal attempting to walk; and the limb-joints crack. The appetite is lost and the mouth is hot and dry; the bowels are constipated and the urine scanty and high-coloured; there is nearly always a deep, painful and harassing cough; on auscultation of the chest, crepitation or harsh blowing sounds are audible; and the membrane lining the eyelids and nose assumes either a bright pink colour or a dull leaden hue. A white, yellowish or greenish-coloured discharge flows from the nostrils. In a few days the fever and other symptoms subside, and convalescence rapidly sets in. In unfavourable cases the fever increases, as well as the prostration, the breathing becomes laboured, the cough more painful and deep, and auscultation and percussion indicate that the lungs are seriously involved, with perhaps the pleura or the heart. Clots sometimes form in the latter organ, and quickly bring about a fatal termination. When the lungs do not suffer, the bowels may, and with this complication there are, in addition to the stupor and torpor, tension and tenderness of the abdominal walls when pressed upon, manifestations of colic, great thirst, a coated tongue; yellowness of the membranes of nose and eyes, high-coloured urine, constipation, and dry faeces covered with mucus. Sometimes rheumatic swelling and tenderness takes place in the muscles and joints of the limbs, which may persist for a long time, often shifting from leg to leg, and involving the sheaths of tendons. At other times acute inflammation of the eyes supervenes, or even paralysis.
In this disease good nursing is the chief factor in the treatment. Comfortable, clean and airy stables or loose-boxes should be provided, and the warmth of the body and limbs maintained. Cold and damp, foul air and uncleanliness, are as inimical to health and as antagonistic to recovery as in the case of mankind. In influenza it has been generally found that the less medicine the sick animal receives the more likely it is to recover. Nevertheless, it may be necessary to adopt such medical measures as the following. For constipation administer enemata of warm water or give a dose of linseed oil or salines. For fever give quinine or mild febrifuge diuretics (as liquor of acetate of ammonia or spirit of nitrous ether), and, if there is cough or nervous excitement, anodynes (such as extract of belladonna). When the fever subsides and the prostration is great, it may be necessary to give stimulants (carbonate of ammonia, nitrous ether, aromatic ammonia) and tonics, both vegetable (gentian, quassia, calumba) and mineral (iron, copper, arsenic). Some veterinary surgeons administer large and frequent doses of quinine from the onset of the disease, and, it is asserted, with excellent effect. If the abdominal organs are chiefly involved, demulcents may supplement the above (linseed boiled to a jelly, to which salt may be added, is the most convenient and best), and drugs to allay pain (as opium and chloral hydrate). Olive oil is a safe laxative in such cases. When nervous symptoms are manifested, it may be necessary to apply wet cloths and vinegar to the head and neck; even blisters to the neck have been recommended. Bromide of potassium has been beneficially employed. To combat inflammation of the throat, chest or abdomen, counter-irritants may be resorted to, such as mustard, soap liniment or the ordinary white liniment composed of oil of turpentine, solution of ammonia and olive oil. The food should be soft mashes and gruel of oatmeal, with carrots and green food, and small and frequent quantities of scalded oats in addition when convalescence has been established.
Dourine, maladie du coit, or covering disease of horses, is a contagious malady caused by the Trypanosoma equiperdum, and Dourine, or covering disease. characterized by specific lesions of the male and female genital organs, the lymphatic and central nervous systems. It occurs in Arabia and continental Europe, and has recently been carried from France to the United States of America (Montana, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Iowa and Illinois) and to Canada. In some of its features it resembles human syphilis, and it is propagated in the same manner. From one to ten days after coitus, or in the stallion not infrequently after some weeks, there is irritation, swelling and a livid redness of the external organs of generation (in stallions the penis may shrink), followed by unhealthy ulcers, which appear in successive crops, often at considerable intervals. In mares these are near the clitoris, which is frequently erected, and the animals rub and switch the tail about, betraying uneasiness. In horses the eruption is on the penis and sheath. In the milder forms there is little constitutional disturbance, and the patients may recover in a period varying from two weeks to two months. In the severe forms the local swelling increases by intermittent steps. In the mare the vulva is the seat of a deep violet congestion and extensive ulceration; pustules appear on the perineum, tail and between the thighs; the lips of the vulva are parted, exposing the irregular, nodular, puckered, ulcerated and lardaceous-looking mucous mermbrane. If the mare happen to be pregnant, abortion occurs. In all cases emaciation sets in; lameness of one or more limbs occurs; great debility is manifested, and this runs on to paralysis, when death ensues after a miserable existence of from four or five months to two years. In horses swelling of the sheath may be the only symptom for a long time, even for a year. Then there may follow dark patches of extravasated blood on or swellings of the penis; the testicles may become tumefied; a dropsical engorgement extends forward beneath the abdomen and chest; the lymphatic glands in different parts of the body may be enlarged; pustules and ulcers appear on the skin; there is a discharge from the eyes and nose; emaciation becomes extreme; a weak and vacillating movement of the posterior limbs gradually increases, as in the mare, to paralysis; and after from three months to three years death puts an end to loathsomeness and great suffering. This malady appears to be spread only by the act of coition. The indications for its suppression and extinction are therefore obvious. They are (1) to prevent diseased animals coming into actual contact, especially per coitum, with healthy ones; (2) to destroy the infected; and (3) as an additional precautionary measure, to thoroughly cleanse and disinfect the stables, clothing, utensils and implements used for the sick horse. Various medicines have been tried in the treatment of slowly developing cases of dourine, and the most successful remedy is atoxyl—a preparation of arsenic.
Horse-pox, which is somewhat rare, is almost, if not quite, identical with cow-pox, being indistinguishable when inoculated on men Horse-pox. and cattle. It most frequently attacks the limbs, though it may appear on the face and other parts of the body. There is usually slight fever; then swelling, heat and tenderness are manifest in the part which is to be the seat of eruption, usually the heels; firm nodules form, increasing to one-third or one-half an inch in diameter; the hair becomes erect; and the skin, if light-coloured, changes to an intense red. On the ninth to the twelfth day a limpid fluid oozes from the surface and mats the hairs together in yellowish scabs; when one of these is removed, there is seen a red, raw depression, whereon the scab was fixed. In three or four days the crusts fall off, and the sores heal spontaneously. No medical treatment is needed, cleanliness being requisite to prevent the pocks becoming sloughs. If the inflammation runs high, a weak solution of carbolic acid may be employed.
Diseases of Cattle.
The diseases of the bovine species are not so numerous as those of the horse, and the more acute contagious maladies are dealt with under Rinderpest and other articles already mentioned.
Tuberculosis is a most formidable and widespread disease of cattle, and it is assuming greater proportions every year, in Tuberculosis. consequence of the absence of legislative measures for its suppression. It is a specific disease, contracted through cohabitation, and caused by the Bacillus tuberculosis, discovered by Koch in 1882. Infection takes place by inhalation of the bacilli or their spores, derived from the dried expectorate or other discharges of tuberculous animals; by ingestion of the bacilli carried in food, milk or water, or by inoculation of a wound of the skin or of a mucous or serous membrane. Occasionally the disease is transmitted by an infected female to the foetus in utero. Its infective properties and communicability to other species render it a serious danger to mankind through the consumption of the milk or flesh of tuberculous cows. The organs chiefly involved are the lymphatic glands, lungs, liver, intestine and the serous membranes—the characteristic tubercles or “grapes” varying in size from a millet seed to immense masses weighing several pounds. The large diffused nodular growths are found principally in the chest and abdomen attached to the membranes lining these cavities.
The symptoms somewhat resemble those of contagious pleuro-pneumonia (q.v.) in its chronic form, though tubercles, sometimes in large numbers, are often found after death in the bodies of cattle which exhibited no sign of illness during life and which when killed were in excellent condition. When the lungs are extensively involved there are signs of constitutional disturbance, irregular appetite, fever, difficult breathing, dry cough, diarrhoea, wasting and debility, with enlarged throat glands, and, in milch cows, variation in the quantity of milk. Auscultation of the chest discovers dullness or absence of respiratory sounds over the affected parts of the lungs. If the animal is not killed it becomes more and more emaciated from anaemia, respiratory difficulty, defective nutrition and profuse diarrhoea. Tuberculosis of the mammary glands usually begins as a slowly developing, painless, nodular induration of one quarter of the udder. The milk at first may be normal in quantity and quality, but later it becomes thin or watery and assumes a blue tint. Cattle with tubercular lesions unaltered by retrogressive changes may appear to be in an ordinary state of health, and in such animals the existence of the disease can only be discovered by resorting to the tuberculin test. Tuberculin, as prepared for the purpose of diagnosis, is a sterilized culture of tubercle bacilli, and when employed with proper precautions it causes a marked rise of temperature in affected cattle, but in ​non-tuberculous animals it has no appreciable action. Medical treatment is of little if any avail. Preventive measures are of the utmost importance. Animals proved free of tuberculous taint should alone be bred from, and those found diseased should be at once completely segregated or slaughtered. Before being used as food the flesh should be well cooked, and the milk from tuberculous cows should be boiled or heated to a temperature of 155° F.
Black-quarter, or black-leg, is a specific, inoculable disease which occurs in young stock from a few months to two years old, in Black-quarter. various parts of the country, and generally in low-lying damp situations. It was classed with anthrax until 1879, when its nature was investigated by Arloing, Cornevin and Thomas, who termed it symptomatic anthrax (Charbon symptomatigue)—a misleading name for a disease which is perfectly distinct from anthrax. This disease is caused by the Bacillus Chaauvaei, and natural infection takes place through small wounds of the legs and feet or other parts. At first it is a local disease affecting usually a hind quarter, though sometimes the characteristic swelling forms on the shoulder, neck, breast, loins or flank. The chief symptoms are sudden loss of appetite, accelerated pulse and respiration, high temperature, debility, lameness or stiffness, followed by the formation of a small, painful swelling which rapidly increases in extent, becomes emphysematous, and in the centre cold and painless. Incision of the tumour gives escape to a red, frothy, sour-smelling fluid. This disease runs its course very rapidly and nearly always terminates fatally, even when medical treatment is promptly applied. Infection can be prevented by resorting to protective inoculation by one of the methods introduced by Arloing, Kitt and others. The natural virus-muscle from the lesion, dried, reduced to powder and attenuated by heat at a high temperature, and a pure culture of the causal organism, are employed as vaccines. The vaccine is introduced subcutaneously at the tip of the tail or behind, the shoulder. Immunity lasts for about twelve months.
Abortion, or the expulsion of the foetus before viability, is a contagious disease in cows. In a herd a case of abortion or Abortion. premature birth from accident or injury sometimes occurs, but when a number of pregnant females abort the cause is due to specific infection of the womb. The microbe of abortion induces catarrh of the uterus and the discharge contains the infective agent. The virus may be transmitted by the bull, by litter, attendants, utensils, or anything which has been contaminated by the discharge from an infected cow. Whenever abortion occurs in a shed the cow should be at once isolated from the others, if they are pregnant, and cleansing and disinfection immediately resorted to, or preferably the pregnant cows should be quickly removed out of the shed and every care should be taken to keep them away from the affected cow and its discharges; the litter and the aborted foetus being burned or otherwise completely destroyed, and the cowshed thoroughly disinfected with quicklime. To prevent further infection, the hinder parts of the in-calf cows should be washed and disinfected from time to time.
Contagious mammitis is a common disease in milch cows. It has been investigated by Nocard and Mollereau, and proved Contagious mammitis. to be caused by a streptococcus which is transmitted from one cow to another by the hands of the milkers. The microbe gains access to the quarter by the teat and induces catarrhal inflammation of the milk ducts and sinuses, with induration of the gland tissue. This disease develops slowly, and except in cases complicated by suppuration, there is little or no constitutional disturbance, though sometimes the affected cows lose condition. The nilk at first preserves its normal appearance, but is less in quantity; it curdles quickly, is acid, and when mixed with good milk produces clotting; then it becomes thin and watery, and finally viscous, yellowish and foetid. At the base of the teat of the affected quarter induration begins and gradually extends upwards, and if not checked the disease passes from one quarter to another until the whole udder is attacked. Prevention can be secured by washing and disinfecting the udder and teats and the milkers' hands before and after milking. Diseased cows should be isolated, their milk destroyed or boiled and fed to pigs, and after each milking the teats should be injected with a warm solution of boracic acid or sodium fluoride. Infected cowsheds should be thoroughly cleansed and disinfected.
Parturient paralysis, or mammary toxaemia, also known as milk fever, though neither a febrile nor a contagious malady, was until Milk fever. quite recently a very fatal affection of dairy cows. It is caused by a nerve poison which is formed in the udder soon after parturition; and, according to Schmidt, the toxin enters the circulation and affects especially, the central nervous system and the muscles, and in a less degree all the organs of the body. This disease usually attacks good milking cows within a few days of an easy labour and seldom before the third or fourth parturition. In twenty-four to forty-eight hours after calving the cow becomes excited and restless, strikes at the abdomen with the hind feet, whisks the tail, lows, grinds the teeth, staggers, falls, makes ineffectual attempts to rise, and eventually lies comatose, stretched on her side with the head extended or inclined towards the shoulder. The eyes are dull, injected and insensitive; general sensation, voluntary motion and the power of swallowing are lost. Secretion of milk fails, digestion is suspended, fermentation of the contents of the paunch sets in, with tympany, constipation and retention of urine. The pulse becomes feeble or imperceptible. Respiration is slow, sometimes stertorous or groaning, and the temperature is low or subnormal. If not treated the animal dies in two or three days from prolonged coma or heart failure.
The curative treatment of this disease continued very unsatisfactory until 1897, when Schmidt, a veterinarian of Kolding, Denmark, introduced the method of injecting the teats with a solution of potassium iodide in conjunction with insufflation of atmospheric air. The immediate results of this line of treatment were astonishing. Rapid recovery became the rule, and in most cases the comatose condition disappeared in less than six hours, and the average mortality (40 to 60%) was reduced to 6%. Afterwards chinosol and other antiseptics were substituted for the potassium salt, and later pure oxygen or atmospheric air alone was injected into the udder, with the result of increasing the recoveries to 99%.
Cowpox is a contagious disease of much less frequent occurrence now than formerly, probably owing to improved hygienic management. Cowpox. In many localities the disease appears in all heifers which have recently calved on certain farms. There is usually a slight premonitory fever, which is generally overlooked; this is succeeded by some diminution in the quantity of the milk, with some increased coagulability, and by the appearance of the eruption or “pox” on the udder and teats. In well-observed cases the udder is hot and tender on manipulation for a day or two previous to the development of small pale-red nodules about the size of peas; these increase in dimensions to from three-fourths to one inch in diameter by the eighth or tenth day, when their contents have become fluid and they present a depressed centre. This fluid, at first clear and limpid, becomes yellowish white as it changes to pus, and soon dries up, leaving a hard, button-shaped black crust, which gradually becomes detached. On the teats, owing to the handling of the milker or to the cow lying on the hard ground or on straw, the vesicles are early ruptured and sores are formed, which often prove troublesome and may cause inflammation of the udder.
Actinomycosis, though affecting man, horses, pigs and other creatures, is far more common in the bovine species. The fungus Actinomycosis. (Actinomyces) may be found in characteristic nodules in various parts of the body, but it usually invades the bones of the jaws, upper and lower, or the soft parts in the neighbourhood of these, as the tongue, cheeks, face, throat and glands in its vicinity. About the head the disease appears to commence with slight sores on the gums or mucous membrane of the mouth or with ulcers alongside decaying teeth, and these extend slowly into the tissues. If the jaw is affected, a large rounded tumour grows from it, the dense outer bone becoming absorbed before the increasing soft growth within. Soon the whole becomes ulcerated and purulent discharges take place, in which are found the minute, hard, yellow granules which contain the fungus. When the tongue is affected, it becomes enlarged and rigid; hence the designation of “wooden tongue” given to it by the Germans. In the course of time the surface of the organ becomes ulcerated, and yellowish masses or nodules may be seen on the surface. Sometimes the entire face is involved, the lips and nostrils becoming swollen, hard and immovable, often rendering respiration difficult. Around the throat there are rounded dense swellings, implicating the glands. When the disease is well-defined and of slight extent, the parts involved may be removed by the knife, wholly or partially. If the latter only, then the remaining affected tissues should be dressed with tincture of iodine or iodized carbolic acid. Chromic acid has also been found useful. A course of potassium iodide internally is sometimes curative and always beneficial.
Diseases of Sheep.
The contagious diseases of the sheep (other than those of foot-and-mouth disease, anthrax, rinderpest, black-quarter) are comparatively few.
The formidable disorder of sheep-pox is confined chiefly to the continent of Europe. It is extremely contagious and fatal, and in these Sheep-pox. and some other characteristics resembles human smallpox. From three to twelve days after being exposed to infection the sheep appears dull and listless, and eats little, if anything; the temperature rises; there are frequent tremblings; tears flow from the eyes; and there is a nasal discharge. Red patches appear inside the limbs and under the abdomen; and on them, as well as on other parts where the skin is thin, dark red spots show themselves, which soon become papules, with a deep hard base. These are generally conical, and the apex quickly becomes white from the formation of pus. This eruption is characteristic and unmistakable; and the vesicles or pustules may remain isolated (discrete pox) or coalesce into large patches (confluent pox). The latter form of the disease is serious. In bad cases the eruption may develop on the eyes and in the respiratory and digestive passages. The course of the disease lasts about three weeks or a month, and the eruption passes through the same ​stages as that of cowpox. The mortality may extend from 10% in mild outbreaks to 90 or 95% in very virulent ones. Diseased animals should be sheltered, and fed on nourishing food, especially gruels of oatmeal flour or linseed; acidulated water may be allowed. If there is sloughing of the skin or extensive sores, oxide of zinc ointment should be applied. But treatment should not be adopted unless there is general infection over a wide extent of country. All diseased animals should be destroyed, as well as those which have been in contact with them, and thorough disinfection resorted to.
Foot-rot is a disease of the claws of sheep. It occurs most frequently in badly drained, low-lying, marshy land, and is caused Foot-rot. by the Bacillus necrophorus. Infection appears to be transmitted by cohabitation, litter, manure and infected pastures. The disease begins at the sole or between the claws and gradually extends, causing changes in the bones and tendons, with suppuration, degeneration of horn and sloughing. The symptoms are lameness, foot or feet hot, tender and swollen at the coronet; the horn soft and rotten. Affected sheep when feeding may rest on the knees, or, if fore and hind feet are involved, they lie down constantly. The claws must be cleansed, loose and underrun horn removed, abscesses opened, and the foot thoroughly disinfected and protected from further infection by an appropriate bandage. Some cases require daily dressing, and all affected feet should receive frequent attention. When large numbers of sheep are attacked they should be slowly driven through a foot-bath containing an antiseptic solution. Pastures on which foot-rot has been contracted should be avoided, the feet examined every month or oftener, and where necessary pared and dressed with pine tar.
Diseases of the Pig.
The pig may become affected with anthrax, foot-and-mouth disease and tuberculosis, and it also has its own particular variola. But the contagious diseases which cause enormous destruction of pigs are swine fever and swine erysipelas in Great Britain, hog cholera and swine plague in the United States, and swine erysipelas and swine plague in France, Germany and other countries of the European continent.
Swine fever is an exceedingly infectious disease, caused by a bacillus, and associated with ulceration of the intestine, enlargement Swine fever. of the lymphatic glands, and limited disease of other organs. It is spread with great facility by mediate as well as immediate contagion; the virus can be carried by apparently healthy pigs from an infected piggery, by litter, manure, food, attendants, dogs, cats, vermin, crates, troughs or anything which has been soiled by the discharges from a diseased pig. It is generally very rapid in its course, death ensuing in a very few days, and when the animal survives, recovery is protracted. After exposure to infection the animal exhibits signs of illness by dullness, weakness, shivering, burying itself in the litter, disinclination to move, staggering gait, great thirst, hot dry snout, loss of appetite, and increased pulse, respiration and temperature (105° F.). Red and violet patches appear on the skin; there is a hacking cough; nausea is followed by vomiting; diarrhoea ensues; the hind legs become paralysed; stupor sets in, and the animal perishes. Treatment should not be attempted. Notification of the existence of swine fever is compulsory, and outbreaks are dealt with by the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries. To suppress the disease kill all affected pigs and those which have been in contact with them; burn or deeply bury the carcasses and litter, and cover with quicklime. Disinfect everything that may have been contaminated with the virus.
Diseases of the Dog.
The contagious diseases of the dog are likewise very few, but the one which attracts most attention is common and generally serious. This is what is popularly known as distemper. Distemper. It is peculiar to the canine species, for there is no evidence that it can be conveyed to other animals, though the different families of Carnivora appear each to be liable to a similar disease. Distemper is a specific, fever which most frequently attacks young dogs, its effects being primarily developed in the respiratory passages, though the brain, spinal chord and abdominal organs may subsequently be involved. Highly bred and pet dogs suffer more severely than the commoner and hardier kinds. It is a most infectious disease, and there is much evidence to prove that it owes its existence and prevalence solely to its virulence. One attack confers immunity from another. The symptoms are rigors, sneezing, dullness, loss of appetite, desire for warmth, and increased temperature, respiration and pulse. The eyes are red, and the nose, at first dry and harsh, becomes smeared with the discharge which soons begins to flow from the nostrils. Suppuration also begins at the eyes; vision is more or less impaired by the mucus and pus, and often the cornea becomes ulcerated, and even perforated. There is a cough, which in some cases is so violent as to induce vomiting. Debility rapidly ensues, and emaciation is soon apparent; diarrhoea in the majority of cases sets in; the body emits an unpleasant odour; ulceration of the mouth is noticed; the nostrils become obstructed by the discharge from them; convulsions generally come on; signs of bronchitis, pneumonia, jaundice or other complications manifest themselves; and in some instances there is a pustular or vesicular eruption on the skin. In fatal cases the animal dies in a state of marasmus. Many which recover are affected with chorea for a long time afterwards. Here, again, good nursing is all-important. Comfort and cleanliness, with plenty of fresh air, must be ensured. Debility being the most serious feature of the disease, the strength should be maintained or restored until the fever has run its course. Light broth, beef tea, or bread and milk, or these alternately, may be allowed as diet. Preparations of quinine, given from the commencement of the attack in a little wine, such as sherry, have proved very beneficial. Often a mild laxative is required. Complications should be treated as they arise. The disease being extremely infectious, precautions should be adopted with regard to other dogs. Protective vaccines and antidistemper sera have been introduced by Lignieres, Copeman, Phisalix and others, but their action is uncertain.
The formidable affliction known as hydrophobia (q.v.) or rabies is treated of under that name.
Principal Parasites of Domestic Animals.
Perhaps the commonest worm infesting the horse is Ascaris equorum, or common lumbricoid. The males are from 6 to 8 in. In horse. long; females 7 to 17 in. They are found in almost every part of the intestine. When present in considerable numbers they produce slight intermittent colicky pains, an unthrifty condition of the skin, with staring coat. Although the horse feeds well, it does not improve in condition, but is “tucked up” and anaemic. Among the principal remedies is a mixture of tartar emetic, turpentine and linseed oil. Santonin, ferrous sulphate, common salt and arsenic are also employed. Sclerostomum equinum or palisade worm is a moderate-sized nematode, having a straight body with a somewhat globular head—males ¾ to 1½ in., females 1 in. to 2 in. long. This worm is found in the intestines, especially the double colon and caecum. The embryos are developed in the eggs after their expulsion from the host, and are lodged in moist mud, where, according to Cobbold, they change their first skin in about three weeks, after which they probably enter the body of an intermediate bearer, whence they are conveyed in food or water to the digestive canal of the horse, the ultimate host. They then penetrate the mucous membrane and enter the blood vessels, where they are sexually differentiated and give rise to aneurism. After a time they resume their wanderings and reach the large intestine, where they form small submucous cysts and rapidly acquire sexual maturity. They are most dangerous when migrating from one organ to another. They are found in the anterior mesenteric artery, but they also produce aneurism of the coeliac axis and other abdominal blood vessels, including the aorta. These parasitic aneurysms are a frequent cause of fatal colic in young horses.
Sclerostomum tetracanthum, or four-spined sclerostome, is about the same size as the palisade worm, and like it is found in the colon, caecum and small mtestine. It finds its way to the bowel in water or green fodder swallowed by the horse. It is a true blood-sucker, and its development is very similar to that of the S. equinum, except that it directly encysts itself in the mucous membrane and does not enter the blood vessels. The symptoms of its presence are emaciation, colicky pains, harsh unthrifty coat, flabby muscles, flatulence, foetid diarrhoea, anaemia, great weakness and, sometimes, hemorrhagic enteritis. Treatment of equine sclerostomiasis frequently fails, as the remedies cannot reach the encysted parasites. As germicides, thymol, areca, ferrous sulphate, tartar emetic, arsenic, sodium chloride, oil of turpentine, lysol, creolin and carbolic acid have been found useful.
Oxyuris curvula, or pin worm, is a common parasite of the large intestine. The anterior part of the body is curved and the tail sharply pointed. The male is seldom seen. The female measures 1 to 1½ in. in length. It is found in the caecum, colon and rectum, and it causes pruritus of the anus, from which it may be found projecting. This parasite is best treated by means of a cathartic, followed by a course of mineral tonics, and repeated rectal injections of sodium chloride solution, infusion of quassia or diluted creolin.
The cestodes or taeniae of the horse are insignificant in size and they produce no special symptoms. Three species—Anoplocephala perfoliata (26-28 mm. long), A. plicata (1½-8 cm.) and A. mamillana (1-3 cm.)—have been described. The first is found in the small intestine and caecum, rarely in the colon; the second occurs in the small intestine and stomach; the third in the small intestine. Generally a horse may be proved to be infested with tape-worm by finding some of the ripe segments or proglottides in the faeces. The best remedy is male fern extract with turpentine and linseed oil.
Gastrophilus equi, or the common bot-fly, is classed with the parasites on account of its larval form living as a parasite. The bot-fly deposits its eggs on the fore-arm, knee and shank of the horse at pasture. In twenty-four hours the ova are hatched and the embryo, crawling on the skin, causes itching, which induces the horse to nibble or lick the part, and in this way the embryo is carried by the tongue to the mouth and swallowed. In the stomach the embryo attaches itself to the mucous membrane, moults three times, increases in size and changes from a blood-red to a yellowish-brown ​colour. The bot remains in the stomach till the following spring, when it detaches itself, passes into the food and is discharged with the faeces. When very numerous, bots may cause symptoms of indigestion, though frequently their presence in the stomach is not indicated by any sign of ill-health. They are difficult to dislodge or kill. Green food, iodine, naphthalin, hydrochloric acid and vegetable bitters have been recommended; but the most effective remedy is a dose of carbon bisulphide given in a gelatin capsule, repeated in twelve hours, and followed twelve hours later by an aloetic ball.
Of the parasites which infest cattle and sheep mention will only be made of Distomum hepaticum, or common fluke, which causes In cattle and sheep. liver-rot or distomiasis, a very fatal disease of lambs and sheep under two years old. It occurs most frequently after a wet season on low-lying, marshy or undrained land, but it may be carried to other pastures by sheep which have been driven through a fluke-infested country, and sheep allowed to graze along ditches by the roadside may contract the parasite. For a full description of its anatomy and development see Trematodes. Preventive treatment comprises the destruction of flukes and snails; avoidance of low-lying, wet pastures draining infested land, and top-dressing with salt, gas-lime, lime water or soot; supplying sheep with pure drinking water; placing rock-salt in the fields, and providing extra food and a tonic lick consisting of salt, aniseed, ferrous sulphate, linseed and peas-meal.
Husk, hoose or verminous bronchitis of calves is caused by Strongylus micrurus, or pointed-tailed strongyle, a thread-worm 1 to 3 in. long, and S. pulmonaris, a similar but smaller nematode; and the corresponding disease of sheep is due to S. filaria and S. rufescens. The male S. filaria is l to 2 in., and the female 2 to 4 in. long. They are white in colour and of the thickness of ordinary sewing cotton. The S. rufescens is thinner and shorter than S. filaria and its colour is brownish red. The development of these strongyles is not accurately known. When expelled and deposited in water or moist earth, the embryos may live for many months. Hoose occurs in spring and continues until autumn, when it may be most severe. In sheep the symptoms are coughing, at first strong, with long intervals, then weak and frequent, leaving the sheep distressed and wheezing; discharge from the nose, salivation, occasional retching with expulsion of parasites in frothy mucus, advancing emaciation, anaemia and weakness. In calves the symptoms are similar but less acute. Various methods of cure have been tried. Remedies given by the mouth are seldom satisfactory. Good results have followed fumigations with chlorine, burning sulphur, tar, &c., and intra-tracheal injections of chloroform, iodine and ether, oil of turpentine, carbolic acid, and opium tincture, or chloroform, ether, creosote and olive oil. The system should be supported with as much good nourishing food as possible.
The principal parasites which infest the alimentary canal of cattle or sheep are strongyles and taeniae. The strongyles of the fourth stomach are S. contortus, or twisted wire-worm (male 10 to 20 mm., female 20 to 30 mm. long), S. convolutus (female 10 to 13 mm.), S. cervicornis (female 10 to 12 mm.), S. gracilis (female 3 to 4 mm.), and an unnamed species (female 9 mm. long) discovered by McFadyean in 1896. In the contents of the stomach the contortus may easily be recognized, but the other parasites, owing to their small size or situation in the mucous membrane, may be overlooked in an ordinary post-mortem examination. The contortus, which is best known, may serve as the type. It lives on the blood which it abstracts from the mucous membrane, and, according to the state of repletion, its body may be red or white. The ova of this worm are discharged in the faeces and spread over the pastures by infected sheep. The ova hatch in a few days, and, according to Ransom, within a fortnight embryos one-thirtieth of an inch long may be found encased in a chitinoid investment, which protects them from the effects of excessive cold, heat or moisture. When the ground is damp and the temperature not too low, the embryos creep up the leaves of grasses and other plants, but when the temperature is below 40° F. they are inactive (Ransom). Sheep feeding on infected pasture gather the young worms and convey them to the fourth stomach, where they, attain maturity in two or three weeks. In wet weather the embryos may be washed into ponds and ditches, and cattle and sheep may swallow them when drinking. Strongyles cause loss of appetite, irritation and inflammation of the stomach and bowel, diarrhoea, anaemia, progressive emaciation, and, if not destroyed or expelled, a lingering death from exhaustion. The success or failure of medicinal treatment depends on the degree of infestation. A change of pasture is always desirable, and as remedies a few doses of oil of turpentine in linseed oil, or a solution of lysol or cyllin, and a powder consisting of arsenic, ferrous sulphate, areca, nux vomica and common salt may be tried. The ox may be the bearer of three and the sheep of twelve species of taeniae, and of these the commonest is Moniezia (taenia) expansa, which is more frequently found in sheep than in cattle. It is the longest tapeworm, being from 6 to 30 ft. in sheep and from 40 to 100 ft. in cattle. Its maximum breadth is ¾ in.; it is found in the small intestine, and sometimes in sufficient numbers in lambs to obstruct the bowel. Infested animals are constantly spreading the ripe segments over the pastures, from which the ova or embryos are gathered by sheep. The symptoms are inappetence, dry harsh wool, weakness, anaemia and diarrhoea with segments of the worms in the faeces. Various drugs have been prescribed for the expulsion of tapeworms, but the most useful are male fern extract, turpentine, kamala, kousso, aloes and linseed oil. Very young animals should be supported by dry nourishing food and tonics, including salt and ferrous sulphate.
The principal round-worms of the intestine of ruminants are Ascaris vitulorum, or calf ascarid, Strongylus filicollis, S. ventricosus, Sclerostomum hypostomum, Anchylostomum cernuum and Trichocephalus affinis, or common whip-worm, which sometimes causes severe symptoms in sheep. For a full account of the development of Cysticercus bovis, or beef measle, the larval form of Taenia saginata of the human subject, see Tapeworms. Another bladder-worm, found in the peritoneum of sheep and cattle, is Cysticercus tenuicollis, or slender-necked hydatid, the larval form of Taenia marginata of the dog. It seldom produces serious lesions. An important hydatid of ruminants in Coenurus cerebralis, which produces in sheep, cattle, goats and deer gid or sturdy, a peculiar affection of the central nervous system characterized by congestion, compression of the brain, vertigo, inco-ordination, and other symptoms of cerebrospinal paralysis. This bladder-worm is the cystic form of Taenia coenurus of the dog. It is found in the cranial cavity, resting on the brain, within its substance or at its base, and sometimes in the spinal canal. The symptoms vary with the position and number of the vesicles. In an ordinary case the animal feeds intermittently or not at all, appears unaccountably nervous or very dull, more or less blind and deaf, with glazed eye, dilated pupil, the head twisted or inclined always to one side—that occupied by the cyst—and when moving the sheep constantly tends to turn in the same direction. When the vesicle is deep-seated or within the cerebral lobe, the sheep carries the head low, brings the feet together and turns round and round like a dog preparing to lie down. When the developing cyst exerts pressure at the base of the cerebellum, the sheep repeatedly falls and rolls over. In other cases the chief symptoms may be frequent falling, always on the same side, high trotting action with varying length of step, advancing by rearing and leaping, complete motor paralysis, and in spinal cases posterior paralysis with dragging of the hind limbs. Medicinal treatment is of no avail, but in some cases the hydatid can be removed by trephining the skull. Gid may be prevented by attending to the treatment of dogs infested with the tapeworm.
The helminthes of the pig, although not very detrimental to the animal itself, are nevertheless of great importance as regards the In the pig. entozoa of man. Allusion must be made to Trichinella spiralis, which causes trichinosis. The male is 1/18th, the female 1/8th in. long, and the embryos 1/30th to 1/27th in. The ova measure 1/1270th in. in their long diameter; they are hatched within the body of the female worm. When scraps of trichinous flesh or infested rats have been ingested by the pig, the cysts enclosing the larval trichinae are dissolved by the gastric juice in about eighteen hours, and the worms are found free in the intestine. In twenty-four to forty-eight hours later these larvae, having undergone certain transformations, become sexually mature; then they copulate, and after an interval the embryos leave the body of the female worm and immediately begin to penetrate the intestinal wall in order to pass into various voluntary muscles, where they become encysted. About twelve days elapse from the time they begin their wandering. Usually each larva is enveloped in a capsule, but two or even three larvae have been found in one investment. They have been known to live in their capsules for eighteen months to two years.
Cysticercus cellulosae is the larval form of Taenia solium of man (see Tapeworms). “Measly pork” is caused by the presence in the flesh of the pig of this entozoon, which is bladder-like in form. It has also been discovered in the dog. Other important parasites of the pig are Stephanurus dentatus, or crown-tailed strongyle, Echinorhynchus gigas, or thorn-headed worm, Ascaris suis, or pig ascarid, and Strongyloides suis. For these the most useful remedies are castor oil seeds, given with the food, and oil of turpentine in milk, followed by a dose of Epsom salts.
Of all the domesticated animals the dog is by far the most frequently infested with worms. A very common round-worm is In the dog. Ascaris marginata (3 to 8 in. long), a variety of the ascarid (A. mystax) of the cat. It occurs in the intestine or stomach of young dogs. The symptoms are emaciation, drooping belly, irritable skin, irregular appetite, vomiting the worms in mucus, colic and diarrhoea. The treatment comprises the administration of areca or santonin in milk, followed by a dose of purgative medicine. A nematode, Filaria immitis, inhabits the heart of the dog, and its larvae may be found in the blood, causing endocarditis, obstruction of the vessels, and fits, which often end in death. Spiroptera sanguinolenta may be found in the dog encysted in the wall of the stomach. Other nematodes of the dog are Anchylostomum trigonocephalum, which causes frequent bleeding from the nose and pernicious anaemia, and Trichocephalus depressiusculus, or whip-worm, which is found in the caecum. The dog harbours eight species of taeniae and five species of Bothriocephalus. Taenia serrata, about 3 ft. in length, is found in about 10% of ​English dogs, most frequently in sporting dogs and those employed on farms, owing to their eating the viscera of rabbits, &c., in which the larval form (Cysticercus pisiformis) of this tapeworm dwells. T. marginata is the largest cestode of the dog. It varies in length from 5 to 8 ft., and is found in the small intestine of 30% of dogs in Great Britain, its cystic form (C. tenuicollis) occurs in the peritoneum of sheep. T. coenurus causes gid in sheep as previously stated. It seldom exceeds 3 ft. in length. Dogs contract this parasite by eating the heads of sheep infested with the bladder-worm (Coenurus cerebralis). Dipylidium caninum, T. cucumerina, or melon seed tapeworm, is a very common parasite of dogs. It varies in length from 3 to 15 in.; its larval form (Cryplocystis trichodectis et pulicis) is found in the abdomen of the dog-flea (Pulex serraticeps), the dog-louse (Trichodectis latus) and in the flea (P. irritans) of the human subject. The dog contracts this worm by swallowing fleas or lice containing the cryptocysts. T. echinococcus may be distinguished from the other tapeworms by its small size. It seldom exceeds ¼ in. in length, and consists of four segments including the head. The fourth or terminal proglottis when ripe is larger than all the rest. Its cystic form is Echinococcus veterinorum, which causes hydatid disease of the liver, lungs, and other organs of cattle, pigs, sheep, horses, and even man. This affection may not be discovered during life. In well-marked cases the liver is much deformed, greatly enlarged, and increased in weight; in the ox the hydatid liver may weigh from 50 to 100 ℔ or more. Another tapeworm (T. serialis) sometimes occurs in the small intestine. Its cystic form is found in rodents. Bothriocephalus latus, or broad tapeworm, about 25 ft. long and 1 in. broad, is found in the intestine of the dog and sometimes in man. Its occurrence appears to be confined to certain parts of the European continent. Its larval form is met with in pike, turbot, tench, perch, and other fishes. The heart-shaped bothriocephalus (B. cordatus) infests the dog and man in Greenland. For the expulsion of tapeworm male fern extract has been found the most effectual agent; areca powder in linseed oil, and a combination of areca, colocynth and jalap, the dose varying according to the age, size and condition of the dog, have also proved beneficial.
The parasites which cause numerous skin affections in the domesticated animals may be arranged in two groups, viz. Dermatozoa. animal parasites or Dermatozoa, and vegetable parasites or Dermatophytes. The dermatozoa, or those which produce pruritus, mange, scab, &c., are lice, fleas, ticks, acari or mange mites, and the larvae of certain flies. The lice of the horse are Haematopinus macrocephalus, Trichodectes pilosus and T. pubescens; those of cattle, H. eurysternus, or large ox-louse, H. vituli, or calf-louse, and T. scalaris, or small ox-louse; and sheep may be attacked by T. sphaerocephalus, or sheep-louse, and by the louse-like ked or fag (Melophagus ovinus) which belongs to the pupiparous diptera. Dogs may be infested with two species of lice, H. piliferus and T. latus, and the pig with one, H. urius.
Ticks belong to the family Ixodidae of the order Acarina. A few species have been proved responsible for the transmission of diseases caused by blood parasites, and this knowledge has greatly increased the importance of ticks in veterinary practice. The best known ticks are Ixodes ricinus, or castor-bean tick, and I. hexagonus, which are found all over Europe, and which attack dogs, cattle, sheep, deer and horses. Rhipicephalus annulatus, or Texan fever-tick of the United States, Rh. decoloratus, or blue-tick of South Africa, and Rh. australis, or scrub-tick of Australia, transmit the parasite of red water or bovine piroplasmosis. Rh. appendiculatus carries the germs of East Coast fever, Rh. bursa is the bearer of the parasite of ovine piroplasmosis, and Rh. evertsi distributes the germs of equine biliary fever. Amblyomma hebraeum conveys the parasite of “heart-water” of cattle and sheep, and Haemaphysalis leachi transmits the parasite of canine piroplasmosis. Hyalomma aegyptium, or Egyptian tick, Rh. simus and Rh. capensis, are common in most parts of Africa.
The acari of itch, scab or mange are species of Sarcoptes, which burrow in the skin; Psoroptes, which puncture the skin and live on the surface sheltered by hairs and scurf; and Chorioptes, which live in colonies and simply pierce the epidermis. Representatives of these three genera have been found on the horse, ox and sheep; varieties of the first genus (Sarcoptes) cause mange in the dog and pig; and Chorioptes cynotis sometimes invades the ears of the dog and cat. These parasites live on the exudation produced by the irritation which they excite. Another acarus (Demodex folliculorum) invades the dog's skin and sometimes occurs in other animals. It inhabits the hair follicles and sebaceous glands, and causes a very intractable acariasis—the follicular or demodecic mange of the dog (see Mite). A useful remedy for mange in the horse is a mixture of sulphur, oil of tar and whale oil, applied daily for three days, then washed off and applied again. For the dog, sulphur, olive oil and potassium carbonate, or oil of tar and fish oil, may be tried. Various approved patent dips are employed for scab in sheep. A good remedy for destroying lice may be compounded from Stavesacre powder, soft soap and hot water, applied warm to the skin. Follicular mange is nearly incurable, but recent cases should be treated by daily rubbing with an ointment of 5 parts cyllin and 100 parts of lanoline.
The vegetable parasites, or Dermatophytes, which cause tinea or ringworm in horses, cattle and dogs, belong to five distinct Dermatophytes. genera: Trichophyton, Microsporum, Eidamella, Achorion and Oospora. Ringworm of the horse is either a Trichophytosis produced by one of four species of fungi (Trichophyton mentagrophytes, T. flavum, T. equinum and T. verrucosum), or a Microsporosis caused by Microsporum audouini. Ringworm of cattle is always a Trichophytosis, and due to T. mentagrophytes. Four different dermatophytes (T. caninum, M. audouini var. caninum, Eidamella spinosa and Oospora canina) affect the dog, producing Trichophytic, Microsporous and Eidamellian ringworm and favus. Little is known of ringworm in sheep and swine. The fungi attack the roots of the hairs, which after a time lose their elasticity and break off, leaving a greyish-yellow, bran-like crust of epidermic products, dried blood and sometimes pus. In favus the crusts are yellow, cupped, almost entirely composed of fungi, and have an odour like that of mouldy cheese. Ringworm may affect any part of the skin, but occurs principally on the head, face, neck, back and hind quarters. It is very contagious, and it may be communicated from one species to another, and from animals to man. The affected parts should be carefully scraped and the crusts destroyed by burning; then the patches should be dressed with iodine tincture, solution of copper sulphate or carbolic acid, or with oil of tar.
Bibliography.—Modern veterinary literature affords striking evidence of the progress made by the science: excellent text-books, manuals and treatises on every subject belonging to it are numerous, and are published in every European language, while the abundant periodical press, with marked ability and discrimination, records and distributes the ever-increasing knowledge. The substantial advances in veterinary pathology, bacteriology, hygiene, surgery and preventive medicine point to a still greater rate of progress. The schools in every way are better equipped, the education and training—general and technical—of students of veterinary medicine are more comprehensive and thorough, and the appliances for observation and investigation of disease have been greatly improved. Among the numerous modern works in English on the various branches of veterinary science, the following may be mentioned: McFadyean, Anatomy of the Horse: a Dissection Guide (London, 1902); Chauveau, Comparative Anatomy of the Domesticated Animals (London, 1891); Cuyer, Artistic Anatomy of Animals (London, 1905); Share-Jones, Surgical Anatomy of the Horse (London, 1907); Jowett, Blood-Serum Therapy and Preventive Inoculation (London, 1906); Swithinbank and Newman, The Bacteriology of Milk (London, 1905); Fleming, Animal Plagues (London, 1882); Merillat, Animal Dentistry (London, 1905); Liautard, Animal Castration (9th ed., London, 1902); Moussu and Dollar, Diseases of Cattle, Sheep, Goats and Swine (London, 1905); Reeks, Common Colics of the Horse (London, 1905); Sessions, Cattle Tuberculosis (London, 1905); Sewell, Dogs: their Management (London, 1897); Hobday, Surgical Diseases of the Dog and Cat (London, 1906); Hill, Management and Diseases of the Dog (London, 1905); Sewell, The Dog's Medical Dictionary (London, 1907); Goubaux and Barrier, Exterior of the Horse (London, 1904); Reeks, Diseases of the Foot of the Horse (London, 1906); Roberge, The Foot of the Horse (London, 1894); Jensen, Milk Hygiene: a Treatise on Dairy and Milk Inspection, &c. (London, 1907); Smith, Manual of Veterinary Hygiene (London, 1905); Fleming, Human and Animal Variolae (London, 1881); Hunting, The Art of Horse-shoeing (London, 1899); Fleming, Horse-shoeing (London, 1900); Dollar and Wheatley, Handbook of Horse-shoeing (London, 1898); Lungwitz, Text-Book of Horse-shoeing (London, 1904); Axe, The Horse: its Treatment in Health and Disease (9 vols., London, 1905); Hayes, The Points of the Horse (London, 1904); Robertson, Equine Medicine (London, 1883); Hayes, Horses on Board Ship (London, 1902); FitzWygram, Horses and Stables (London, 1901); Liautard, Lameness of Horses (London, 1888); Walley, Meat Inspection (2nd ed., London, 1901); Ostertag, Handbook of Meat Inspection (London, 1907); Courtenay, Practice of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery (London, 1902); Williams, Principles and Practice of Veterinary Medicine (8th ed., London, 1897); J. Law, Text-book of Veterinary Medicine (5 vols., New York, 1905); Cadiot and Dollar, Clinical Veterinary Medicine and Surgery (London, 1900); Steel, Diseases of the Ox (London, 1881); Leblanc, Diseases of the Mammary Gland (London, 1904); De Bruin, Bovine Obstetrics (London, 1901); Fleming, Veterinary Obstetrics (London, 1896); Dalrymple, Veterinary Obstetrics (London, 1898); Neumann, Parasites and Parasitic Diseases of the Domesticated Animals (London, 1905); F. Smith, Veterinary Physiology (3rd ed., London, 1907); Meade Smith, Physiology of the Domestic Animals (London, 1889); Kitt, Comparative General Pathology (London, 1907); Friedberger and Fröhner, Veterinary Pathology (London, 1905); Brown, Atlas of the Pig (London, 1900); Rushworth, Sheep and their Diseases (London, 1903); Fleming, Operative Veterinary Surgery (London, 1903); Williams, Principles and Practice of Veterinary Surgery (10th ed., London, 1903); Moller and Dollar, Practice of Veterinary Surgery (London, 1904); Fröhner, General Veterinary Surgery (New York, 1906); Merillat, Principles of Veterinary Surgery and Surgical Pathology (London, 1907); Cadiot and Almy, Surgical ​Therapeutics of Domestic Animals (London, 1906); Hayes, Stable Management (London, 1903); Dun, Veterinary Medicines: their Actions and Uses (11th ed., Edinburgh, 1906); Tuson, A Pharmacopoeia (London, 1904); Hoare, Veterinary Therapeutics and Pharmacology (London, 1907); Gresswell, The Veterinary Pharmacopoeia and Manual of Therapeutics (London, 1903); Winslow, Veterinary Materia Medica and Therapeutics (New York, 1901); Nunn, Veterinary Toxicology (London, 1907); Laveran and Mesnil, Trypanosomata and the Trypanosomiases (London, 1907); Journal of Comparative Pathology and Therapeutics (quarterly, Edinburgh); The Veterinary Journal (monthly, London); The Veterinary Record (weekly, London); The Veterinary News (weekly, London).  (G. Fl.; J. Mac.)
* ↑ Regarding the origin of the word “veterinary,” the following occurs in D’Arboval’s Dictionnaire de médecine el de chirurgie vétérinaires, edited by Zundel (1877), iii 814: “Les mots veterinaria et veterinarius étaient employés par les Romains pour désigner: le premier, la médecine des bêtes de somme; le second, pour indiquer celui qui la pratiquait; le mot veterinae indiquait les bêtes de somme, et était la contraction de veheterinae, du verbe vehere, porter, tirer, traîner. L’étymologie rélle du mot vétérinaire, ou plutôt du mot veterinarius des Romains, serait d’apres Lenglet encore plus ancienne; elle viendrait du celtigue, d’où le mot serait passé chez les Romains; cet auteur fait venir le mot de vee, bétail (d’où l’allemand Vieh), teeren, être malade (d’où l’allemand Zehren, consomption), aerts ou arts, artiste, médecin (d’où l’allemand Arzt).”
* ↑ See Leechdoms. Wortcunning and Starcraft of Early England (3 vols. 8vo, London, 1864).
* ↑ See Fleming, Horse-shoes and Horse-Shoeing (London, 1869).