266 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 



with studying the outward forms of his equine favorites alone — he 

 must know more ; he must know of the inner powers, the machinery 

 of which this wonderful whole was composed. He therefore gave 

 himself most diligently to the study of equine anatomy as well as 

 physiology, these studies being encouraged by his friend Pouteau, 

 one of the most eminent surgeons of Lyons. At the same time he 

 devotedly studied the writings of earlier veterinarians, and published 

 two works — "Nouveau Newcastle," 1747, and the "Elements of 

 Veterinary Medicine," 1750. Bourgelat has mistakenly been called a 

 reformer of veterinary medicine ; on the contrary, his was the spirit 

 which gave cause to the birth of scientific research in a branch of 

 medicine which until his time had been nothing but the crudest 

 empiricism. The real science in veterinary medicine did not find 

 birth till many years after Bourgelat's death. He broke the bonds 

 of quackery and superstition to a degree, and gave science room and 

 opportunity to develop. In one thing Bourgelat was indeed wiser 

 than Lafosse, in that he extended his studies beyond the horse, see- 

 ing the necessity of studying the anatomy, physiology, and pathol- 

 ogy of all the domestic animals ; but Lafosse was his superior in intel- 

 lect, in that freedom of mind which evinced itself in his taking an 

 active part for the freedom of his countrymen in the Revolution. 

 On the 5th of August, 1761, through the influence of his friend 

 Bertin, he received permission to found a school in Lyons, the aim 

 of which was to study the diseases of all the domestic animals. The 

 Government supported him with the assistance of 50,000 livres, pay- 

 able in equal portions for six consecutive years. This school was 

 opened to students the 2d of January, 1762, in a small house, for- 

 merly used as a hotel, in a suburb of Lyons called " La Guillatiere." 

 It soon acquired Continental celebrity, and among the students of 

 its first year we find the names of three Danes, three Swedes, three 

 Austrians, three Prussians, three Sardinians, and ten Swiss, all sent 

 to study the elements of the new medicine by and at the expense of 

 their respective governments. The branches at first taught were 

 zootomy, especially that of the horse (exterior), horsemanship, phar- 

 macy, special pathology, surgery, and the principles of sanitary 

 police. 



Scarcely was the foundation of the school successfully accom- 

 plished, before France was again the seat of the ravages of the de- 

 vastating animal plagues, which gave its students an opportunity to 

 display the value of systematic education, crude as it then was, over 

 the still cruder but futile attempts of a puerile empiricism. The 

 students, guided by the teachings of their master, were so successful 



