The article is intended to signal the transformations in the specifics of animal treatment with the use of medicines of plant origin – from attempts arising from medical practice, herbalism applied to humans, to an increasingly professional approach, as a consequence of the formation of a professional approach to veterinary treatment and the development of zoological knowledge in Poland. The text analyzes veterinary textbooks, agricultural treatises, encyclopedias and handbooks.
First of all, horses were treated as the most valuable animals, the most helpful to man and the most connected with him. Documents on their care are the oldest sources attesting to the development of veterinary medicine in Poland. Already in the accounts of the court of Wladyslaw Jagiello, issued in 1394, there was information about a fee for the treatment of sick horses by a farrier – surgery and medicines. The earliest veterinary textbook is considered to be a small book published in 1532, Sprawa a lekarstwa końskie written by a Konrad – a royal veterinarian. Another text analyzed in the article is a treatise by Krzysztof Dorohostajski: Hippika to jest o koniach księgi, published in Cracow in 1603.
Another animal species that was also given veterinary care was dogs. The article includes a discussion of plant medicines described in Jan Ostroróg’s hunting treatise from 1618 Myślistwo z ogary. A great deal of information on the term of medicines for various livestock species is also contained in Jakub Kazimierz Haur’s Ekonomika ziemiańska from 1675.
The 18th century was dominated, also in veterinary medicine, by French writing, and then the professionalization of the medical approach can be seen. This is a consequence of the fact that the fi rst school, training doctors in this direction, was established in 1762 in Lyon. The article analyzes plant medicines for livestock, including insects, which were described in the works of Jan Krzysztof Kluk. Closing the considerations presented in the article is the analysis of medicinal plant species presented in Zoonomii czyli Sztuka leczenia chorób wewnętrznych i zewnętrznych, by A. Piatkowski, published in 1809.
