Archival material of the month

Archival material of the month - May 2012

The archival material in May commemorates the 225th anniversary of Hungarian veterinary education.
Joseph Franz II declared in the decision of December 12, 1786 that a veterinary department be established at the Medical Faculty of the University in Pest and appointed Sándor Tolnay head of the department. The document summerizes his suitability for the job by the following statement: "he has all the necessary capabilities". Sándor Tolnay (1747-1818) graduated as a veterinarian in Vienna. Between 1769 and 1775 he studied horse-breeding and horse-healing in Paris and other cities of France, then in London.
The department rented the Skopek Manor in Józsefváros. They were given 549 forints and 50 pennies in order to obtain the necessary surgical instruments and a reference library. To ensure practical training, it was ordered that stables be belonged to the department where Tolnay "may keep one or more animals".
The lectures began in mid-February and lasted until the end of July, so they were limited to only one semester, and the students of medicine and chirurgy had to listen to lectures for three hours a week. The lectures covered the most common infectious diseases of horses, sheep and pigs.