The birth of veterinary art probably preceded that of human medicine. In biological existence, food is the primitive requirement. Veterinary medicine sustains life; human medicine preserves it.

Upon domestication of animal life, diseases which were not before apparent became rampant and it logically fell to the shepherds and herdsmen to care for the sick animals. These early husbandmen were not long in discovering the pitfalls of their undertaking. Their weapons in attacking the diseased conditions confronting them were magic, prayers, imprecations, incantations, and other barbaric rites practiced as cures preceding the primitive studies of. animal medicine.