INTRO DUCT* )R V ADDRESS. 
381 
tudinarium” or hospital for sick soldiers. The Roman writers on 
agriculture described numerous diseases of sheep, goats and 
swine, but their works are only of historical interest. Cato (234 
149 B. 0.), Varro (116 B. C.), in his “De re rustica” and Celsus 
(40 B. C.) are full of the superstitions of the age and ascribe to 
the stars, to the moon and the various natural phenomena the 
greatest influence on diseases of animals and the remedies to be 
used in healing them. Columella (40 A. 13.) in volumes six and 
seven of his twelve volume “De re rustica,” treats extensively of 
animals ; he recommends bleeding, describes castration and the use 
of the hot iron, and splints for fracture. Pedanius Dioscoridius, 
20 years latter, gives an account of hydrophobia. Pliny, the 
younger, and Galen speak of the scab in sheep. In the middle 
of the 4th century Apsyrtus established the diagnosis of strangles 
from glanders, gave a description of moon blindness, founder, 
tetanus, cough, tuberculosis and several of the contagious diseases, 
and he proposed curative means of extreme common sense. At 
latter end of the same century Vegetins Renatus, a Latin, col¬ 
lected most of the known writings of his predecessors and com¬ 
piled a work of veterinary medicine. From the 7th to the 13th 
centuries we find scarcely a trace of literature on veterinary 
subjects, except from the pens of Abu Bekr, Avicenna (980-1037 
A.D.) and Ibu el Beilhar (1248 A.D.), all of them Arabs. Then 
as now among the Arabs the art of healing a horse was regarded 
as a gift of God, belonging to special families and transmitted by 
them to their descendants. To offer them pay would be an insult, 
and their only reward is the most profuse hospitality from their 
neighbors. 
During the early days of the Middle Ages the rulers of states 
were, with a few exceptions, too much occupied with wars to 
devote any thought to the advancement of science or to the pro¬ 
motion of agriculture. Under Frederick II, however, Jordanus 
Ruff us (1194 to 1250 A. D.) wrote a book of considerable value, 
in which spavin is described, among other blemishes, with great 
credit. In 1270, Theodoric, Bishop of Servia, also wrote a book 
of value. The superstition of the Greek and Roman days, which 
perverted the symptoms of diseases and rendered all study of a 
