THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 211 



extending from that date to our own day. Both of these periods 

 are capable of subdivision. The pre-scholastic period may be sub- 

 divided into the ante-Greek, the Grasco-Roman, and the period of 

 the " Stahlmeisters," " mareschal," or master of the horse, while 

 the scholastic period may be divided into the educational-empiric 

 and the scientific-educational, which saw its birth about thirty years 

 ago. 



" Westward the march of empire takes its way ! " So true as 

 this is, it is no less true that with the " westward " movement of 

 humanity and civilization, the contagious and ravaging pests which 

 have preyed and still continue to prey upon a suffering human and 

 animal world have kept up a uniform extension. So it is of sci- 

 ence. So it is with the endeavor of medical science — prevention. 

 So it will be with that branch of medical science which I am en- 

 deavoring, however unsuccessfully, faithfully to represent — veteri- 

 nary medicine. 



Philologists have taught us that the civilized races of the day 

 took their rise from the Aryans, a pastoral people who conquered 

 the nomad tribes living on the high plateaus of the Caucasus Mount- 

 ains in the north of India. These Aryans attained a wonderful de- 

 gree of civilization, which is detailed to us in records of an age some 

 1000 years b. c. With their civilization was mixed an immense 

 amount of superstition, a great awe and reverence for all the start- 

 ling phenomena of nature, as well as all natural creations. These 

 records are ingrafted in the beautiful poems of the " Artharva," 

 " Rig " and " Ayur Yeda," the last meaning the " Science of Life," 

 and the great war-poem, the " Mahabharata." 



The reverence which these people bore to their Brahmans, as the 

 ministers of their gods, and their worship of the sacred cow, and 

 tender care of all animal life, are well known to the student of these 

 ancient writings. With suffering comes naturally an immediate 

 search for relief. Behold, then, the birth of empiricism ! The re- 

 sults of these experiences were handed down from mouth to mouth ; 

 these sayings being frequently collected and recited for the benefit 

 of the people by the priests and wise men. The wealth of these 

 early people, and also of many of their immediate descendants of 

 our day, was in their immense herds of grazing animals. Fleming, 

 " Animal Plagues," says : " The immense steppes of Central Asia 

 still furnish us with examples of this condition of the unsettled 

 races who wander over them with their countless herds." A recent 

 traveler * in that region of the world pleasantly describes some of 

 * Atkinson, " Oriental and Western Siberia." 



