202 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



veterinary schools of Europe by the various European gov- 

 ernments. 



The vaUie of veterinarians was early recognized. Those 

 in the days of ancient Rome came from the same ranks 

 which supplied the philsophers and the doctors. They 

 were employed to attend the animals used in the gladiatorial 

 arena, and most of them were both human and animal 

 practitioners combined. They attended to the surgical needs 

 of ♦the gladiators at the same time. The cavalry of the 

 Roman armies was also supplied with veterinary surgeons. 

 During the feudal period the masters of the horse to the vari- 

 ous princes and barons acted in the capacity of veterinarians, 

 and some of them wrote upon the diseases and management 

 of the horse. To France belongs the credit of being the 

 first nation to recognize the value of veterinary science to 

 the State to the extent of founding institutions for the educa- 

 tion of veterinarians, and affording them government support. 



The first veterinary school was founded by Claude 

 Bourgelat, m the city of Lyons. He, through the influence 

 of a friend, received permission from the government, 

 August 5, 1761, to found a school for the study of diseases 

 of the domesticated animals. The government assisted him 

 by giving the school 50,000 livres, payable in equal portions 

 in six consecutive years. It was opened for students Jan. 

 2, 1762, and soon acquired a continental celebrity. 



The first year there were three Danes, three Swedes, 

 three Austrians, three Prussians, three Sardinians and ten 

 Swiss among the students, sent there by their respective 

 governments, to study the elements of the new medicine. 



Louis XV. thought so highly of the Lyons college, that 

 he named it the " Royal Veterinary School," in 1764. 



In 1765, the veterinary school at Alfort, a suburb of 

 Paris, was founded by the French government, and Bourge- 

 lat was called from Lyons to assume the directorship of 

 the new institution. 



We have not time to refer at length to the history of the 

 continental veterinary schools. What information I have 

 on the subject has been gleaned from Dr. Billings' "Rela- 

 tion of Animal Diseases to the Public Health," and I shall 

 refer to them as briefly as possible. 



