Veterinary Medicine
Medicine > Veterinary Medicine
Veterinary medicine might seem to have little business being here among the human medical sciences. But the doctor of veterinary medicine is as much animal by virtue of his title (from Latin veterinae, "draught animals") as the science itself is human…or humane.
Veterinary medicine, also called veterinary science, deals primarily with diseases and the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of them in domestic and work animals. According to Brittanicaonline.com the profession goes as far back as Babylonia and Egypt, where it was revered as a specialty. Then just as important as it was to the animal and human bonding process, it became utterly invalid and unimportant, disappearing as a profession or science.
Resuscitated in the middle 1700’s, veterinary medicine was not only once again practiced but taught in the first veterinary schools. As a medical diagnostic, preventative, and therapeutic treatment science for animals, this branch of medicine has as much versatility as do other branches and divisions of human science. For example, a veterinarian may choose to practice internal medicine, surgery, or other clinical preventative vet science; he or she may opt for working only with small animals (also deemed “pets”), only with large animals (livestock and/or farm working animals), or only with wild animals. Others choose to work exclusively with exotic animals and pets (such as reptiles and possums)
Vetrinary medicine also includes reptile medicine, ratite medicine, livestock medicine, equine medicine (caring for and treating horses involved in sports, show rings, and rodeos), and the science includes close work with laboratory animals in a clinical setting.
Clinical application is not the end of the line, however. Research medicine invites veterinary medicine practitioners to help explore and define the medical, veterinary medical, and pharmacological research fields, as well.
And according to sources at wikipedia.com, “research veterinarians were the first to isolate oncoviruses, Salmonella species, Brucella species, and various other pathogenic agents,” and assisted in the conquering of “malaria and yellow fever, solving “the mystery of botulism,” producing an anticoagulant used to treat people with heart disease,” and defining and developing such surgical techniques for humans as hip joint replacements and limb and organ transplants.
Besides those in veterinary medicine being used in the fields of agriculture, fish and game, food and drug, and environmental protection, vets whom we consider animal doctors have also proved differently in one more area: they work on diseases that are inter-communicable between animals and humans. This is what I meant by their being partly of the animal world and partly of the human.