Youatt’s cattle breeds (1835).

Youatt’s book of cattle is divided in two parts. The first is about breeds, the second part is about anatomy and diseases.

The first part contains eight chapters, one about the history of the ox (with some speculation about the biblical flood and Abraham) and seven describing the different breeds of cattle: the British ox (dies it exist?), middle-horns, polled cattle, Irish cattle, long-horns, short horns and foreign breed (among them zebus and other breeds of the British colonies).

Each of the classes of breeds is described as belonging to the British counties and of parts of those where the breeds are kept and within each county or district important cattle breeders are mentioned with the breeds they are raising.  Some historical and geographical context is given as well.

As an example take a closer look at the cattle breeds of a part of Scotland. Youatt gives six classes of cattle breeds and one of them is the West-Highlander, a middle-horn breed. This breed is also found on the Hebrides, and according to Youatt they seem to retain most of its original character there and he treats it as a separate, Hebridean, breed.

He starts the discussion of this cattle-type with the history of the Hebrides, going back as far as the Middle Ages because this history may explain why the inhabitants neglected their cattle (because they were fighting and seafaring) and why they started to breed cattle (because they became honest, industrious fishermen, who learned agriculture). Youatt then continues telling us of the excellent properties of the cattle and how various owners on different islands treated their flocks.

Dairy on the Hebrides in 1835 is considered of little importance; the farmers rarely keep more milch cows than will furnish their families with milk, butter and cheese. The Highland cow does not give much milk, but that milk is rich and the butter made of it is excellent. During milking the cows are carefully drained to the last drop “…because the retention of any part [of the milk] is apt to hasten, if it does not produce, that which is one of the principle objections to the Highland cows as milkers, the speedy drying up of their milk”.

The West Highland breed still exists, but seems to be more hairy than the cow depicted in Youatt’s book.

Youatt uses almost any detail known about cattle breeds and their management for his overview. Stories of superstitious behaviour of farmers are mentioned in footnotes all over the book. He also describes the slow and interrupted journey of the cattle from the islands to the mainland as far south as London; we tend to forget that they had to walk the whole distance. He gives calculations of expenses and gains to estimate the financial benefit of fattening of cattle kept on the Hebrides.

I did not count all the breeds in Youatt’s book but my estimate is that he described approximately 80 breeds in the wy he described the Hebridean breed.

He certainly has collected an enormous amount of data from all over Great Britain and Ireland!

William Youatt, Cattle, their Breeds, Managment and Diseases, London: Baldwin and Craddock, 1834, p.64-73.

William Youatt (1767-1847) on cattle breeding and diseases

William Youatt, who lived from 1776 to 1847 was an influential veterinarian in England in the first half of the eighteenth century. Although he was originally not a veterinarian – he was educated for a ministry – he joined a veterinary hospital and became a veterinary surgeon by practical training. He started to give lectures and demonstrations for veterinary students in 1828 and initiated the journal The Veterinarian to which he contributed a large number of publications about all kinds of veterinary subjects. A nice anecdote is described in the Dictionary of National Biography:

“In 1844 Youatt standing at the head of his profession, was not a registered member of it; he objected to the constitution of the examining body of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, which consisted chiefly of physicians and surgeons. When, however, in 1844 this body was remodelled, and composed chiefly of veterinarians, Youatt, then being nearly seventy years old, presented himself for examination.  The difficulty by his refusal to answer a professional question rather impertinently put to him was overruled by the tact of the chairman, who handed him his diploma on the spot.” (1)

Youatt wrote many veterinary books, monographs on horses, pigs, rabies, dogs, sheep, bruteness against animals,  and cows. The latter is the book to which I will give more attention, because it contains many data and insights which are of interest for veterinarian historians and veterinarians in general (2) who are interested in bovine diseases and cattle breeding.

The book was written for improving the British veterinary education in the 1830’s. As Youatt himself states in the introduction:

“ ….  owing to the absence of efficient instruction concerning the diseases of cattle in the principal veterinary school, and the incomprehensible supineness of agricultural societies, and agriculturists generally, cattle have been too much left to the tender mercies of those who are utterly ignorant of their structures, the true nature of their diseases, the scientific treatment of them, and even the very first principles of medicine.”

Youatt apparently had not much practical experience with cattle, but he solved it by using a huge network of correspondents; his book is full of reports of visits he brought to breeders and farmers and quotations of letters he received from people in the country about their experience with diseases of cattle. Also worthwhile is his report of the cattle market in London and the way milk is handled as a commodity.

Some of these reports will fill more of my blogs on Youatts book. For those who are interested: the book is freely available on the internet via Google books.

1. E.Clarke, ‘Youatt, William’. Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, vol 63, p 354-355. See: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Youatt,_William_%28DNB00%29

2. William Youatt, Cattle, their Breeds, Management and Diseases, London: Baldwin and Craddock, 1834, p.2.