François-Hilaire Gilbert, a veterinary artist portrayed in fifteen manuscripts

by Laurent Garino, Docteur vétérinaire, Adel. l.garino@tiscali.fr

This study involves fifteen manuscripts discovered in the François-Hilaire Gilbert Fund and collected by Pierre Bonnaud under the title ‘Pathologies et recherche’. Modern and spiritually reformist, Gilbert tried to achieve rational diagnoses and treatments, thus fighting against empiricism that generally prevailed at that time. He considered that veterinarians should be fully involved in the field of animal husbandry and that their
role was crucial in combating contagious diseases. His contemporary colleagues succeeded in propagating these ideas, which resulted in the birth of veterinarians as they are known today.

Bull.Soc.Hist.Méd.Sci.Vét., 2007, 7 : 83-93