TOE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 241 



pie themselves. Wars on wars, with all their accompanying evils, 

 had impoverished both the governments and people. Epidemic on 

 epidemic had almost broken all the binding ties of kindred and affec- 

 tion. Plague on plague had driven peoj)le to the last verge of hope 

 for sustenance and wealth, by robbing them of their animals, more 

 especially cattle. " It has been computed that from 1711 to 1714 no 

 fewer than one million five hundred thousand cattle died in Europe 

 from cattle-plague." A competent authority tells us that between 

 1719 and 1769 "not less than two hundred millions of cattle were 

 destroyed by rinderpest alone." * These figures might easily be 

 augmented to a degree almost beyond human conception. In our 

 own day millions of dollars' worth of valuable animal property is 

 yearly swept away by these ravaging destroyers. Ignorance and su- 

 perstition prevailed among the people. "Where should they look for 

 aid ? The doctors were powerless. The veterinary empiricism of 

 the day sank as an imbecile before the furious storm. The Church 

 cried that the Almighty was angry, and punishing the world for its 

 sins. " Come to me — I alone can save you ! " said an equally imbecile 

 priesthood. The people went ! Instead of help, they found husks. 

 In spite of the invocations of anointed bishops, in spite of the sacred 

 and all-preserving charms which the Church affirmed were possessed 

 by the consecrated oils, or by the burning cross, or heated key of 

 the all-holy saints, Martin and Angelo, in spite of Inquisitional tor- 

 tures inflicted upon an already suffering animal world by these bar- 

 barians of the Church, in spite of all the powers of man, on went 

 the ravaging pests, carrying death and misery in their path. 



Empirical curers, then as now, were to be had on all sides, but 

 their medicines were as empty of effect as their brains were of 

 knowledge. The so-called veterinary profession was as powerless 

 as the mighty Church ; priestly imbecile and veterinary quack joined 

 hands in producing nothing. Woe, woe was on every side ! Hope 

 alone was all that poor humanity had to depend upon. Men felt 

 that they were indeed deserted by God, and that the Father of the 

 heavens was no more mindful of his children. But this was only 

 so in appearance. 



We have arrived at the latter part of the eighteenth century, 

 and found — what? That no veterinary science existed; that no 

 veterinarians had added anything of much value, other than a few 

 things of practical import, to human knowledge. But the medical 

 profession had not been idle. While Luther was battling, as a son 

 of Mars, for the freedom of the human intellect from the trammels 



* " Animal Plagues." 

 16 



