TDE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 219 



produced any <;oncrul effects, the free use of water in batliin«j^ is 

 reconiiuended, anil the bowels are to be afterward opened by purga- 

 tives and emetics, followed by errhines to clear the passages." 



The perfection to which the Aryan doctors developed the prac- 

 tice of surgery is surprising indeed. They made many useful 

 instniments, catlieterized the bladder, removed stones, punctured 

 the abdomen, originated plastic operations upon the nose, ear, and 

 lips, set fractured bones, performed " laparotomy,'' and made skill- 

 ful operations upon the eye. The Caesarean operation was per- 

 formed on the death of the mother to save the infant. 



The beginners of veterinary medicine, or, rather, those who firet 

 practiced the liealing art upon animals, were undoubtedly the shep- 

 herds and lierdsmen, who were intrusted with their care. This em- 

 ployment was frequently followed in families, and the results of 

 experience thus gained were doubtless transmitted from father to 

 son for generations. These early veterinary empirics must fre- 

 quently have come in friendly intercourse, and thus the results of 

 nnitual experiences were interchanged and criticised ; so the fund of 

 empirical knowledge gradually increased, until the sum of these 

 experiences was linally gathered on parchment, and then, with the 

 birth of printing, into books. While many of these men were un- 

 doubtedly keen observers of nature, there is no doubt that they 

 were also great admirei's of the marvelous, and equally superstitious, 

 so that many most absurd superstitions as to the causes of disease 

 crept into their sayings and writings. 



Charaka is said to have written a work upon the diseases of ani- 

 mals, but I have vainly searched for any quotations from it. That 

 the Jews and Egyptians were acquainted with many forms of animal 

 disease must be known to every reader of the Bible, for the plagues 

 with which Jehovah punished the Egyptians, and through which 

 they were robl)ed of tlieir cattle, are most graphically described by 

 Moses. The oldest Egyptian monuments bear upon them carvings 

 illustrating the treatment of animals. 



The Greeks possessed, at a very early date, a more or less ex- 

 tended literature with reference to the treatment of the diseases of 

 animals. With the blooming of Greek culture, medical art took an 

 active move forward. IIij)pocrates, 4<50-377 n. c, the honored 

 father of medicine and the compiler of all the knowledge which ex- 

 isted up to his time, was quite well acquainted with the coarser 

 anatomy of some of the lower animals, and we find several notices 

 in his writings which warrant us in assuming that he was not unac- 

 quainted with some of their diseases. In speaking of hydrothorax, 



