ACCOUNT OF THE FRENCH VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 387 
pest, or malignant epidemic, was not previously unknown; its 
visitations, however, had been rare, and short; but in the year 
1710 it seemed to break out contemporaneously in every part 
of Europe: it raged with undiminished fury for four years, and 
destroyed nearly half of the cattle. The skill of the rude cow- 
leeches of the day, and even of the most eminent medical prac¬ 
titioners, was completely baffled. With occasional remissions, 
irregular and too often short, it was the terror of the agricul¬ 
turist for forty years; and then, about the year 1750, it seemed 
to assume a tenfold power to devastate, and for ten years all 
medical skill, and all legislative preventive or curative enact¬ 
ments were insufficient to arrest its march. At length, it be¬ 
came evident to the medical men who had fruitlessly laboured 
to remedy the evil, and to the agriculturist who had suffered 
so severely by it, that they w^ere contending with the foe at 
much disadvantage; for they knew T not the nature of the 
weapons which he used, or the sources whence he derived his 
power. There were no persons who had devoted themselves 
to the study of the anatomy and diseases of domestic animals, 
and w r ho might thus be enabled to recognize the true nature 
and seat and treatment of the complaint. Common sense and 
interest began, at length, to enforce the propriety of the esta¬ 
blishment of veterinary schools; and on the 5th of August, 
1761, a decree of the Council of State empowered Bourgelat, a 
veterinary practitioner, and likewise the best veterinary author 
of his day, to found at Lyons a school for the study of the 
anatomy and diseases of cattle (from the circumstances I have 
related, naturally placed at the head of the list), horses, mules, 
sheep, goats, swine, dogs, &c. 
Bourgelat, than whom a more zealous and fitter man could not 
have been selected, was appointed director of the school; and on 
the 1st of January, 1 762, the veterinary college at Lyons was 
established. The school consisted of Bourgelat, as director ; an 
assistant director, w ho was also professor of anatomy and sur¬ 
gery ; a professor of materia medica and botany; another of the 
knowledge of the exterior of animals, and the treatment of 
disease; a third, who had the charge of the hospital, and was 
also assistant professor of surgery; and a fourth, who had the 
management of the forgo. 
This school had scarcely been established, when its utility 
was abundantly demonstrated. Partly, perhaps, from natural 
causes, but to a considerable degree from the diligence and skill 
of the professors, the ravages of the epidemic were restrained, 
and at length it disappeared altogether; and the other diseases 
to which cattle and horses were subject, were also mitigated in 
