Alexandre Liautard: The French Veterinarian Who Professionalized American Vet Medicine

Who was Alexandre Liautard?

Alexandre Liautard was born in Paris on 15 February 1835. He entered the veterinary school at Alfort as a young teenager and then moved to Toulouse, graduating in 1855 or 1856, since sources differ on the year. After three years in the French Army he emigrated to New York City and began to practice there in 1860, as the AVMA's historical profile of him records.

He arrived at a time when American livestock keepers had little organized veterinary help. Horses, cattle and other stock were treated by a mix of graduates, apprentices and self-taught practitioners. Liautard brought a European diploma and a determination to change that.

How did he build American veterinary organizations?

Liautard helped organize the United States Veterinary Medical Association, whose first meeting was held June 9 and 10, 1863. He served as secretary and suggested the motto Non Nobis Solum, meaning not for ourselves alone. He later led the group as president in 1875 to 1877 and again in 1886 to 1887.

The association changed its name to the American Veterinary Medical Association in 1898. The AVMA's profile of Daniel Salmon describes that renaming at the Omaha meeting, the same body Liautard had helped found 35 years earlier.

Teaching veterinary medicine in New York

Clinical instruction at the New York College of Veterinary Surgeons began in 1864, and Liautard taught comparative anatomy and surgery there. In 1865 he earned a medical degree at the University Medical College in New York, adding human medicine to his French veterinary training.

In 1875 he founded the American Veterinary College and served as its dean. The school ran for about 25 years and merged with the New York College of Veterinary Surgeons in 1899, becoming a department of New York University. That institution closed in 1922, according to the AVMA account.

The American Veterinary Review

Liautard became the first editor in chief of the American Veterinary Review, whose first volume appeared in January 1877. In 1881 the Association gave him the journal outright and he became its sole proprietor. He sold an interest to Roscoe R. Bell in 1896 and severed his financial ties in 1900.

A journal gave practitioners a place to publish case reports on livestock disease and a shared vocabulary. That matters for cattle: when contagious pleuropneumonia and Texas fever threatened herds, a profession with its own press could circulate findings faster than one that worked in isolation.

Later years and honors

Liautard returned to France in 1900 but kept the title of senior editor and contributed a monthly feature to the Review until 1918. The AVMA named him honorary president at its 50th anniversary meeting in 1913. He died on 18 April 1918, two days after a heart attack, at age 83.

Why Liautard matters to cattle people

Beef producers rarely hear his name, yet the vets who dipped cattle for ticks, tested herds for tuberculosis and inspected stockyards came from the schools and associations he helped create. For more on how animal health shaped ranching, see farm.FM's ranching coverage and a farm.FM story about ranch veterinarians.

A second source on New York's early veterinary schools is a Cornell student's history of the city's five veterinary colleges.