Page 25 - VHSA - Onderstepoort 100 Years - Part 3

ONDERSTEPOORT 100
The oldest journal in the library is The Veterinarian: a monthly journal of veterinary science. It existed from 1828-1902 and was published in London by Longman. Onderstepoort’s library has holdings from vol 17, no. 193 (new series, no 25, 1844), to its termination in 1902. The second oldest journal is the Virchow Archiv für pathologische Anatomie und Physiologie und für klinische Medizin. The original title is maintained from vol 1, 1847 to vol 340, 1966. It was then split into two subtitles: Virchow Archiv A retained the original numbering and the last volume subscribed to was 393, 1981. Subscription to Virchow Archiv B was cancelled at volume 40, 1982. Virchow was a progressive German surgeon whose provocative ideas generated hostility among his older peers.
In a report on typhus in 1848, he wrote that the outbreak could not be solved by treating individual patients with drugs or with minor changes in food, housing, or clothing laws, but only through radical action to promote the advancement of an entire population. He inter alia wrote: ‘the proletariat is the result, principally, of the introduction and improvement of machinery ... shall the triumph of human genius lead to nothing more than to make the human race miserable?’ Dissatisfied with the editors of various journals that refused to publish two of his manuscripts,
he and Benno Reinhardt founded this journal that became one of the most prominent medical periodicals of the time. It is still in existence, even complete on the internet. There is one possible exception to the status of The Veterinarian and Virchow Archiv as being the oldest periodicals in the library: a single volume (XIII) of The British Critic of 1799. It is a general magazine, but contains articles on medicine, including at least one on rabies.
The fourth oldest book is by William Gibson, namely a second edition, 1754, of: A new treatise on the diseases of horses. Both Hope and Gibson are on undetermined loan to the Library, Faculty of Veterinary Science and are on display. Other gems from the 18th century include: The gentlemen’s farriery, by J. Bartlet, 1777, Schriften der Berlinischen Gesell- schaft naturforschender Freunde, erster Band, 1780 and Der Naturforscher, 1791, des fünf und zwanzigsten Stückes.
The library is well-supplied with books from the 19th century, but too many to be mentioned. The vast majority of them were published in the latter half of that century. Many of them have only horses as a topic, reflecting the importance of the horse in the military environment. Cattle and other species played only a secondary role. South African literature of the period consists mainly of governmental publications from the four states that later became the Union of South Africa. Sadly, our sets are not complete due to a lack of formal library facilities at the time when they were published. The following book consists of notes by a farmer (T.B. Bayley) and correspondence, reports, etc. which he gathered on the topic. It is considered to be the first fairly substantial publication on a veterinary topic in South Africa. Bayley, T.B. Notes on the horse-sickness at the Cape of Good Hope, in 1854-1855: compiled by permission of His Excellency the Governor, from official documents. Cape Town: Saul Solomon, 1856.
Much of the information in use at the end of the 19th century was published in Britain and other European countries, resulting from the rise of ‘germ theories’, the growing professionalisation of scientific research within state bureaucracies and the expansion in internationally accredited scientific journals. With exceptions such as Bayley’s report and various government reports, little was published on veteri- nary problems in South Africa. The systematic accumulation of South African veterinary knowledge essentially began with the establishment of the Daspoort and Onderstepoort insti- tutions. However, the Agricultural Journal of the Cape of Good Hope, first published in 1888, contains some information of veterinary interest.
Knuth and Du Toit’s Tropen-Krankheiten der Haustiere (Leipzig: Barth) is a book with an interesting history. It was apparently mainly written by P.J. du Toit while he was stuck/ `interned’ in Germany during World War I. Though written in German, and for an international audience, this can be considered the first book covering South African veterinary diseases. The library only owns copies of the 2nd edition, 1921. ‘Diseases of animals in South Africa’ appeared in 1922. This book by C.R. Edmonds, a Rhodesian, for some reason never figured prominently in enquiries and history activities in this library.
The Reports of the Government Veterinary Bacteriologist
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OVI Library
1908-2008
Years