Claude Bourgelat (27 March 1712 – 3 January 1779) was a French veterinary surgeon. He was a founder of scientifically informed

veterinary medicine Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, medical diagnosis, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in non-human animals. The scope of veterinary medicine is wide, covering all a ...

, and he created the world's first two veterinary schools for professional training.

Life and career

Bourgelat was born at

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

. He initially studied law and worked as a barrister, but he became interested in veterinary medicine because of his interest in horses. In 1740, at the age of 28, Bourgelat became the head of the Lyon Academy of Horsemanship. As an amateur horsemanship enthusiast, he developed a style of horse riding that is still used as of today. In 1750 Bourgelat wrote a book on the topic of veterinary medicine, in which he considered the idea of founding a veterinary school. He followed through on this idea when he co-founded the first two veterinary schools in the world, the École nationale vétérinaire de Lyon in 1761 and the

École nationale vétérinaire d'Alfort The National veterinary school of Alfort ( or ''ENVA'') is a French public institution of scientific research and higher education in veterinary medicine, located in Maisons-Alfort, Val-de-Marne, close to Paris. It is operated under the superv ...

in 1765. He founded the veterinary college specifically to combat the cattle plague (also called the ''rinderpest''), and students trained at the Lyon veterinary college were credited with helping to cure the disease. Statue Claude Bourgelat VetAgro

Bourgelat was noted for being an early practitioner of scientifically informed veterinary medicine, which incorporated ideas from natural history, chemistry, clinical medicine, and comparative anatomy. Bourgelat was a member of the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

and the

Prussian Academy of Sciences The Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences () was an academy established in Berlin, Germany on 11 July 1700, four years after the Prussian Academy of Arts, or "Arts Academy," to which "Berlin Academy" may also refer. In the 18th century, when Frenc ...

. He also contributed more than 235 articles to

Diderot Denis Diderot (; ; 5 October 171331 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a prominent figure during t ...

and d'Alambert's '' Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers''.Frank A. Kafker: ''Notices sur les auteurs des dix-sept volumes de « discours » de l'Encyclopédie. Recherches sur Diderot et sur l'Encyclopédie.'' 1989, Volume 7, Numéro 7, p. 133
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Selected works

*''Élémens d'hippiatrique, ou, Nouveaux principes sur la connoissance et sur la médecine des chevaux'' (1750) * ''L'art vétérinaire'' (1761) * ''Matiere médicale raisonnée; ou, Précis des médicamens considérés dans leurs effets, a l'usage des éleves de l'Ecole royale vétérinaire; avec les formules médicinales''. Lyon, Jean-Marie Bruyset (1765) * ''Lehrbegriff der medicinischen Materie; oder, Beschreibung der einfachen Arzeneyen nach ihren Wirkungen; nebst den Medicinischen Formeln. Zum Gebrauche der Lehrlinge in der königl. Vieharzeneyschule zu Lyon. Aus dem Französischen übersetzt''. Leipzig, M. G. Wiedmanns Erben und Reich (1766) * ''Matiere médicale raisonnée, ou, Précis des médicamens considérés dans leurs effets''. Lyon, Chez Jean-Marie Bruyset (1771) * ''Elémens de l'art vétérinaire. Précis anatomique du corps du cheval, à l'usage des éleves des écoles vétérinaires''. Paris, Vallat-la-Chapelle (1791)

Notes

References

* Marc Mammerickx: ''Claude Bourgelat: avocat des vétérinaires'', Bruxelles 1971 * Hugues Plaideux, « L'inventaire après décès de Claude Bourgelat », in ''Bulletin de la Société française d'histoire de la médecine et des sciences vétérinaires'', 10, 2010, p. 125-15
on line
* Hugues Plaideux, « La descendance de Claude Bourgelat », in ''Bulletin de la Société française d'histoire de la médecine et des sciences vétérinaires'', 12, 2012, p. 161-176
on line
* ''Bourgelat, Claude'', in: Frank Arthur Kafker, The encyclopedists as individuals: a biographical dictionary of the authors of the Encyclopédie, Oxford 1988, , p. 67–71. * Richard Tagand: ''Claude Bourgelat, écuyer lyonnais, 1712–1779'', in: Revue de médecine vétérinaire 1959, p. 888–897. * Alcide Railliet, Léon Moulé: ''Histoire de l'École d'Alfort'', Paris 1908
online
* Louis-Furcy Grognier: ''Notice historique et raisonnée sur C. Bourgelat, Fondateur des écoles vétérinaires; ou l'on trouve un aperçu statistique sur ces établissemens'', Paris .a.1805 {{DEFAULTSORT:Bourgelat, Claude 1712 births 1779 deaths Physicians from Lyon Contributors to the Encyclopédie (1751–1772) Members of the French Academy of Sciences Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences French veterinarians French male non-fiction writers 18th-century French male writers

Life and career

Selected works

See also

Notes

References

Further reading