Comparative Pathology. 15 



hold for even mere contact with the dead bodies of animals. 

 Among the rare publications appearing in the middle ages there 

 is onlv one large work on the anatomy of the horse (issued in 

 1598 by the \'enetian senator, Carlo Ruini, but probably the 

 product of some physician) which is at all worthy of note as 

 showing any advance in knowledge. At the same time the nat- 

 ural history of the domestic animals was considerably advanced 

 by C. Gessner (15 16-1565) and Aldrovandi (1522- 1605). Prac- 

 tice of veterinary medicine w^as relegated more and more to far- 

 riers, executioners and butchers and naturally drifted into the 

 crudest sort of empiricism. However, when skill in riding and 

 horses became more prized in the courts of princes and in war, 

 there was a change for the better; and Italian, French and Ger- 

 man masters of the stable (Pignatelli, J\Iarx Fugger, Bohme, 

 Winter von Adlersfliigel, Robertson, J. von Sind, Solleysel, Pluvi- 

 nel. Lafosse) published a number of works upon the diseases of 

 the horse. From the eighteenth century physicians once more be- 

 gan to frequently pay attention to animal pathology; the necessi- 

 ties arising from devastating epidemics among cattle, particularly 

 cattle plague, stimulating the members of the medical faculties 

 to endeavor to stamp out these diseases and to publish numerous 

 articles upon investigations bearing in this direction (Ramazzini, 

 Lancisi, Schroeck, Golike, Kamper, Sauvages, von Haller, Paulet). 

 In the years from 1762- 1790, in most of the [European] 

 states, schools of veterinary medicine were established, the first 

 being inaugurated by Bourgelat in Lyons and Alfort. With this 

 step comparative medicine found a place in scientific institutions, 

 later, after various changes in organization, assuming the rank of 

 independent colleges or becoming incorporated with the universi- 

 ties. 



The first teachers of veterinary medicine were for the most 

 part physicians ; and even to the present the progress of the sci- 

 ence is in close sympathy and relation with human medicine. 

 However, the men who in the nineteenth century have been edu- 

 cated to the dignity of independent investigators and to a new 

 standard as veterinarians, have broadened comparative medicine 

 to a manv sided field ; and the results of their discoveries and 

 their practical achievements have become of importance not only to 

 the farming and cattle-raising industries, but to the general wel- 

 fare of mankind as well when one takes into consideration the 

 consumption of meat and the dangers of animal epidemics. 



