THE VETERINARY INSTITUTE AT VIENNA, AUSTRIA. 281 



was preceded by the opening of a school for the treatment of the 

 diseases of the horse and operative practice in 1764, with the con- 

 sent and support of the Government, by an Italian named Luigi 

 Scotti, who, in company with an apothecary named Mengmann, was 

 sent by Maria Theresa to Lyons to study the principles of veterinary 

 medicine. During this visit to France Scotti received 420 guldens 

 each year from the Government. On their return they presented 

 the Government with a proposal for the erection of a school, and 

 recommended a course of two years, considering the study of 

 anatomy as the most important subject. They recommended that 

 the students be taken from among the experienced smiths of the 

 army, that could read and write, and felt confident that they 

 could make competent veterinarians in the time mentioned. Ac- 

 cording to their plan of instruction, general anatomy, osteology, 

 and exterior, were to be taught in the fall, as well as horse- 

 shoeing, upon which great stress was laid ; in winter, myology and 

 practice in horseshoeing ; and in spring and summer, a knowledge 

 of the useful plants, their preparations and use. The second year 

 was little more than a repetition of the first, with the exception 

 that the students were made acquainted with disease and its treat- 

 ment by hospital practice. There were but two teachers attached 

 to the school, which was opened January 12, 1767, the whole being 

 under the supervision of a military official, who attended to the gen- 

 eral order, cleanliness, and deportment of the students. The pur- 

 pose of the school was limited to the education of better qualified 

 smiths for the army, and only army horses were treated therein. 

 The students were taken for the full two-years' course, and only at 

 the expiration of the same were new students taken. 



While this horse-school was still in active operation, J. Gottlieb 

 Wolstein, surgeon, and a selected military farrier by the name of 

 Schmid, were sent by the Minister of War to Alfort, to carefully 

 study the principles and practice of veterinary medicine as there 

 taught. Both of them were paid by the Government, as well as hav- 

 ing an allowance for the necessary expense, in return for which they 

 were obliged to bind themselves for life to serve the Government, 

 and on their return Wolstein was named as professor and Schmid as 

 assistant. 



Schraeder* says : " Joh. Gottlieb Wolstein, Doctor of Medicine 

 and Surgery, was born at Flinsberg, in Silesia, March 14, 1738, 

 and died at Altona, near Hamburg, July 3, 1820. He at first gave 

 his attention to the study of surgery for nine years at Vienna, and 



* Loc. cit., p. 476. 



