Premodern era Archeological evidence, in the form of a cow skull upon which
trepanation had been performed, shows that people were performing veterinary procedures in the
Neolithic (3400–3000 BCE). medicine, early second millennium BCE The
Egyptian Papyrus of Kahun (
Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt) is the first extant record of veterinary medicine. The
Shalihotra Samhita, dating from the time of
Ashoka, is an early Indian veterinary treatise. The
edicts of Asoka read: "Everywhere King Piyadasi (
Asoka) made two kinds of medicine (चिकित्सा) available, medicine for people, and medicine for animals. Where no
healing herbs for people and animals were available, he ordered that they be bought and planted." '' (14th century)
Hippiatrica is a Byzantine compilation of hippiatrics, dated to the fifth or sixth century AD. The first attempts to organize and regulate the practice of treating animals tended to focus on horses because of their economic significance. In the
Middle Ages, farriers combined their work in
horseshoeing with the more general task of "horse doctoring". The Arabic tradition of
Bayṭara, or
Shiyāt al-Khayl, originates with the treatise of Ibn Akhī Hizām (fl. late ninth century). In 1356, the
Lord Mayor of London,
Sir Henry Picard, concerned at the poor standard of care given to horses in the city, requested that all farriers operating within a 7-mile (11-km) radius of the
City of London form a "fellowship" to regulate and improve their practices. This ultimately led to the establishment of the
Worshipful Company of Farriers in 1674. Meanwhile,
Carlo Ruini's book (
Anatomy of the Horse) was published in 1598. It was the first comprehensive treatise on the anatomy of a nonhuman species. '', showing an eye operation on a horse
Establishment of profession established the earliest veterinary school in
Lyon in 1762. The first veterinary school was founded in
Lyon, France, in 1762 by
Claude Bourgelat. According to Lupton, The school received immediate international recognition in the 18th century and its pedagogical model drew on the existing fields of human medicine,
natural history, and
comparative anatomy. The Swedish veterinary education received funding 1774, and was officially started May 8th 1775 when the king Gustaf III signed the document.
Peter Hernquist, who had studied for
Carl von Linné in Uppsala, and also studied in Lyon with
Claude Bourgelat, was head of school and is considered father of veterinary medicine in Sweden. The
Odiham Agricultural Society was founded in 1783 in England to promote
agriculture and
industry, and played an important role in the foundation of the veterinary profession in Britain. A founding member,
Thomas Burgess, began to take up the cause of animal welfare and campaign for the more humane treatment of sick animals. A 1785 society meeting resolved to "promote the study of Farriery upon rational scientific principles." Physician James Clark wrote a treatise entitled
Prevention of Disease in which he argued for the professionalization of the veterinary trade, and the establishment of veterinary colleges. This was finally achieved in 1790, through the campaigning of
Granville Penn, who persuaded Frenchman Benoit Vial de St. Bel to accept the professorship of the newly established veterinary college in London. In the United States, the first schools were established in the early 19th century in
Boston, New York City, and
Philadelphia. In 1879,
Iowa Agricultural College became the first
land-grant college to establish a school of veterinary medicine. The veterinary profession in the United States went through a major transition as automobiles replaced horses as the primary mode of individual transportation in the 1920s and 1930s. Urban equine veterinarians were forced to innovate, shifting their practices to focus on companion animals, namely dogs and cats. ==Veterinary workers==