INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
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to dogs, hawks and other sporting animals; officers of the army 
and officials of the breeding studs were obliged to apply them¬ 
selves to the cure of. their ailments. In the 18th century the 
rinderpest ravaged over the most of Europe, princes and govern¬ 
ments commissioned the celebrities in medicine of the day to 
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search for a remedy for the treatment or prevention of this per¬ 
nicious disease. Several of the governments recognized the ne¬ 
cessity for institutions for veterinary studies, but the jealousies of 
the stud masters on one hand and the military and epidemic police 
authorities on the other, prevented the accomplishment of any 
definite plan. 
In 1762 Claude Bourgelet, a French advocate, who was a 
lover of horses, and as an amateur had attained considerable 
knowledge of animals and of medicine, placed the fruits of his 
labor and his extraordinary intellect to use. He founded from 
his own resources, which were limited, a school for teaching vet¬ 
erinary medicine, at Lyons, in the centre of France; the only 
qualification demanded from scholars was a good character; the 
course extended over one year and treated principally of the 
horse. The success and fame of this school was immediate and 
great; not only were a large number of French scholars attracted 
to it, but most of the neighboring governments sent students to 
learn the merits of it. The French government, which has always 
been the foster mother of science, now assumed the responsibility 
of the institution, enlarged it, and in 1765 called Bourgelat to 
Paris to establish a second school. This was placed at Alfort on 
the site of the .Royal Menagerie, and special attention was paid 
to cattle and sheep. There was at this time in Paris a private 
school, rich in the teaching of Lafosse the younger, but from 
unfortunate personal and political differences between Lafosse 
and Bourgelat no fusion of their teaching could ever be accom¬ 
plished. While Austria, Prussia and the greater German States, 
England, Denmark and Italy resolved at once to profit by the 
example of France, the realization of their plans differed greatly 
and was not everywhere immediately completed. Italy and the 
Teutonic races were the first to follow with success; their institu¬ 
tions were started under two distinct plans, one the founding of a 
