The first European text on veterinary
medicine [FOREIGN] Anatomy of the Horse was printed in 1598.
So what changed in the 18th century was that a new group of people emerged and
began to specialize in animal treatment.
They received a broadly similar education.
They began to talk to each other and communicate using books and journals.
And they began to collect together in what became a profession
that was exclusively aimed at treating animals.
The use of books and journals was crucial to the developing veterinary profession.
In fact, delving into journals such as the Veterinary Records, which is still
a leading publication today, gives us a glimpse of how the profession changed.
It certainly doesn't tell us everything about what life was like for
a 19th century veterinary surgeon.
No single historical source can do that.
But, it gives some clues through case reports,
correspondence pages, job adverts, and
editorials about how the emerging profession began to organize itself.
And define its role in society.
But the new professional veterinarians didn't have the field
entirely to themselves.
What had happened throughout history was that a wide variety of people had
treated animals.
They just didn't simply give up because a new group had come along.
What the new vets had to do was to demonstrate that their methods were
actually better.
That they were the more effective, and efficient animal healers.
And that certainly didn't happen overnight,
in fact it took rather a long time.
In Britain, it took us up to 1948 for the veterinary profession
to obtain an exclusive monopoly on the treatment of animal disease.
Up to that point, the middle of the 20th century,
there was really quite a large variety of people treating animals.
And they were legally entitled to do so.
The only thing that they couldn't do was to call themselves veterinary surgeons.
So they might call themselves an animal doctor or canine physician or whatever.
As long as they didn't use the term veterinary surgeon,
they could continue to treat animals.
That all changed after 1948 when it then became became illegal for
non-veterinarians to treat animals.
And if we look at other countries, you can see a similar kind of pattern emerging
that the profession works to establish itself and
then develops a professional monopoly.
Just like all other professions in order to provide the services to animals.