VETERINARY SCIENCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23517, 4 June 1938, Page 5

VETERINARY SCIENCE

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS’ RECORD

By Michael Ewart

The recent outbreak of facial eczema in this country must of necessity draw attention to the work of the men who endeavour to prevent and control animal disease. As long ago as 1785, the farmers of Hampshire felt the need of “scientific farriery” as it was then called, and determined to raise a sum of money to send one or more students to the famous Alfort School, near Paris. Farriery was then being recognised as a science, and schools were already established at Paris, Lyons, Vienna and Hanover. Shortly after this determination, Charles Vial St. Bel, of the Royal School at Lyons, came to England and outlined a plan for establishing a school in England to teach the science of veterinary medicine. He duly returned to France, but early in the following year, a meeting was held at the famous Coffee House, in Bond street, under the presidency of the Duke of Northumberland, which was attended by “ noblemen, gentlemen and scholars, who resolved to erect themselves into the Veterinary College of London,” and St. Bel was appointed the first professor of the college. Charles Vial St. Bel was a professor of veterinary medicine in the Royal School at Lyons. He was a man of outstanding ability and wide vision. His early death—-he died of glanders, contracted from a horse — was a great setback to the college, and a tragedy to science. He died a martyr to the science to which his life had been devoted, working for the development of veterinary knowledge. St. Bel laid the foundations of the college in more ways than one. He saw the erection of the first building in 1791, upon the site of the present college. In his day the college was right in the country. London came no nearer than Holborn. The sound of coaching horns drifted through the windows, and cows grazed on the meadows now covered by the streets of Camden Town.

It is a tribute to this great man, and a remarkable testimony to his ability, talent, foresight and scholarly enthusiasm, that the college curriculum of those days, short though it was, comprised, as far as the science of the times allowed, the main principles of the college course to-day; and this was long before the age of the “ ologies.” The college made steady progress under various principals until the year 1892, when Sir John McFadyean was appointed. He was an enthusiastic disciple of Pasteur and Koch. He applied much of the work of those great scientists to the enlightenment' and development of veterinary science, and his researches into tuberculosis, glanders and Johne’s disease were accepted as basic and became standard work in veterinary science. He was a man of rare skill and great attainment, and brought the college academically and practically to a point at which it proved to be of great and inestimable service to the nation during the Great War.

At the end of tlje war, the college emerged with a great record, and a higher academic standing than it had ever'had before. Calls were coming for qualified men from home and abroad. The colonies needed veterinary surgeons in increasing numbers. The college would have to be rebuilt and the staff enlarged to cope with the demand. The Government was approached and promised the sum of £150,000 provided an additional sum of £ 100,000 could be obtained from other sources. The principal of the college, Sir Frederick Hobday, came to the rescue, and it was through his untiring efforts that the task was successfully accomplished. So began a new chapter in the history of a tried institution that had proved its value to the Empire through work that had been carried out under incredibly difficult conditions. From the days of George 111 to those of George VI the college then established has continued to teach veterinary medicine, and today the veterinary surgeon undergoing his five years training is following in the footsteps of those “ scientific farriers " who began, so courageously, to erect the stairway of veterinary science in the eighteenth century. To-day the Royal Veterinary College is known throughout the length and breadth of a British Empire undreamed of in the days of George 111.

When the college began its work in 1791 there were 14 students. Today there are, 350 in London alone Between the Royal College in Glasgow, the Royal College in Dublin, the Royal (Dick) College in Edinburgh, and the Royal College in Liverpool-—there are over 1200 veterinary students altogether. The splendid new building erected on the historic site at Camden Town, was opened by his Majesty the King on November 9, 1937. Thus Government aid and untiring effort has brought into being a training establishment for veterinary medicine and surgery that will have a profound effect upon the agricultural and dairying interests of England, and also the dominions and colonies. Incidentally, the Beaumont Animal Hospital on the left-hand side of the main block, facing Great College street, in which her Majesty Queen Elizabeth displayed such keen interest, is a free clinic, and here sick animals of the poor are treated free of all charge. It is the aim of the college course to ensure that every man and woman who obtains the diploma of M.R.C.V.S. shall be capable of efficient diagnosis. It is this facility of diagnosis, based upon wide and fundamentally scientific training, that distinguishes the professional practitioner from the unqualified. It gives to those who require such service a guarantee of scientific attainment. It is the earnest of the modern tendency, which has been so largely evolved in practice, of effective preventive measures in so many aspects of veterinary work to-day Surprising as it may seem, the greatest losses among animals are through nutritional errors and defects. The value of research in such connections cannot be overemphasised. Research is the spear point of progress, and constant research is the only way by which science can obviate great loss to the agricultural and dairying industries. The veterinary surgeon does his work quietly but efficiently. He does not advertise. The value ot his services to the community as a whole is only beginning to gain recognition. Health : n the animal means health in the man, and that is where the “ Vet" proves his worth. The old Scotch farmers in the South Island actually paid the passages of qualified men, so that they could have the benefit of their services. Vets were known and established in the South Island long before the North had thought of them.

Unfortunately, the number of qualified veterinary surgeons in proportion to the number of farm animals in New Zealand to-day is absurd. There are roughly 36,000,000 farm animals in England, and the proportion is approximately one veterinary surgeon to every 17,000 animals, and in the United States it is one to every 15,000 animals In New Zealand there are over 33,000,000 farm animals, and the proportion is approximately one veterinary surgeon to every 650,000 animals. This indicates the almost hopeless position of New Zealand should some very infectious disease break out among the live stock of the country. Sadly handicapped as lie is by the unwieldy number of animals under his care, the benefit of his trained knowledge and experience is at the disposal of the farmer at any time. The lack of funds to be devoted to research is also a grave handicap. Research is vitally necessary—especially to-day when extensive and indiscriminate top-dressing seems to cause an unbalanced liet, witfo its consequent ills.

England has already made a start. Spending £600,000 yearly for the next four years, and employing over 1000 veterinary surgeons—the new scheme begun in April of this year is intended to obviate the losses due to disease, estimated at £ 14,000,000 annually. It would be interesting to know just what amount New Zealand loses yearly through stock disease. In proportion to the number of animals in this country, it is certain to be a very large sum, undoubtedly running into millions.