John McFadyean was the father of veterinary research in Britain. Born in 1853, son of a tenant farmer in Galloway, he received his veterinary diploma from the Edinburgh school in 1876, just when the earliest discoveries of Pasteur and Koch were being revealed to an astonished world. McFadyean understood immediately the significance of the germ theory of infectious disease. He sought further knowledge in Faculties of Medicine and Science of Edinburgh University, paying for this instruction by lecturing in anatomy at the veterinary school. In the 1880’s McFadyean was the only veterinary pathologist in Britain. Iron-willed, capable of incredible physical and mental labour, he coaxed, cajoled and bludgeoned the veterinary profession into the scientific era.
In 1892 he became the first professor of Pathology and Bacteriology at the Royal Veterinary College, London, and two years later was appointed Principal of that school. Year after year, chronically short of money, space and equipment, he made discoveries of greatest importance to the understanding and control of animal diseases. Besides being a gifted research worker and teacher, McFadyean was a tough and able administrator, with a distaste for humbug that became legendary in his lifetime.
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