Veterinary science in the nascent state: the animal hospital in Vilnius, 1834-1842

This article investigates early trends in veterinary research using a comparative analysis of historical records concerning a model early-19th-century animal hospital. Such a hospital was organized at the Medical and Surgical Academy in Vilnius in 1834-1842 to provide clinical teaching for vets and control animal plagues and was assumed to be a model one because its structure and activity were patterned on the best veterinary hospitals at that time which existed in Lyon, Alfort and Vienna. It has been shown that the characteristic features of veterinary medicine in the period under consideration included: conducting clinical observations and performing autopsies to clarify the pathogeneses of animal diseases; studying epizootics; anthropomorphizing sick animals, which involved borrowing knowledge from medical theories and applying fashionable therapies used on humans to animals; as well as providing practical education to vets to make them versatile and independent. Horses and dogs were the most numerous groups of patients treated at the Vilnius animal hospital.