[Introductory lecture] : Glasgow Veterinary College.
- Clark, F. W., Sheriff.
- Date:
- [between 1800 and 1899]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: [Introductory lecture] : Glasgow Veterinary College. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.
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![of iron exposed the horse to alternate sweats and chills that proved highly destructive. Such things necessitated some knowledge of surgery anH medicine. And here came in the importan't part played by the riding-masters or mar^schals of the day. It was the profession of these gentlemen to procure and train such horses, and afterwards to direct their treatment. Hence they carefully studied the nature and constitution of the horse, and generally possessed the high- est degree of veterinary skill known at the time. In Spain, Italy, France, and Germany riding schools, called academies, were established. Some of them obtained a world-wide celebrity. Numerous works on the manage, that is, military riding, emanated from them, and to each was always attached a treatise on the veterinary art. In so high estimation was this combination of riding-master and veterinary surgeon held, that it was exercised by the highest of the military nobles. It is a very significant fact that the French word mareschal, which denotes the highest military oflficer in France, originally meant a veterinary surgeon, and is still used as tlie name for a farrier. With the introduction of gunpowder chivalry was extinguished, heavy cavalry fell into disuse, and the armies of Europe came to consist mainly of infantry. This revolution brought about the decline of the old mar^schals with all their science and traditions, and that art which kings and nobles had loved to teach fell into the hands of obscure practitioners with little more science than that possessed by a huntsman or trainer for the turf The Marquis of Newcastle, whose celebrated work appeared about 1680, was the last of the great military riding-masters; and though after his time his humbler brethren made a gallant struggle to maintain their ancient renown, they steadily declined, and the science of the riding-school gave way to that of the turf. The result of this was that the veterinary art was fast passing into the hands of blacksmiths, now no longer armourers, and was in danger of tumbling from a profession to a trade. Coincidentally, however, with the decline of the professors of military equitation, arose the first pioneers of the science of veterinary surgery, properly so called. In Italy, as early as 1618, appeared the work of Carlo Ruini, on the diseases of the horse, profusely illus- trated with superb engravings. This was followed in France by the Grand Mar^^chal Francois, a work of great erudi- tion. Soon after appeared Le parfait Mar6scha], by](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21467808_0007.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
