User:Darreenvt/Alexandre Liautard

Alexandre François Augustin Liautard was a French veterinarian born on February 15 1835 in Paris and died April 20 1918 at Bois-Jérôme-Saint-Ouen, ( Eure, France). After graduating from the École nationale vétérinaire de Toulouse (National Veterinary School of Toulouse) in 1856, he emigrated to the United States in 1859 to exercise his profession of veterinary practitioner in New York until 1900, when he retired and returned to France. The name of Alexandre Liautard is associated with the beginning of private veterinary education in America. Liautard was the founder and dean of the New York American Veterinary College. He participated in organizing the American Veterinary profession and founded the United States Veterinary Medical Association, now the American Veterinary Medical Association, of which he was for many years a driving force. His name is still cited in the American veterinary press as a dominant figure in the history of the profession for having defined its professional standards and missions,and been a uniting force, and as founder of the American Veterinary Review, now the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA).

Alexandre Liautard is honored today, as he was during his lifetime, as the « father of the American veterinary profession ».

Biography
Alexandre François Augustin Liautard was born on 15 February 1835 at 33 rue Neuve-Saint- Augustin, now rue Saint-Augustin, in the second arrondissement of Paris. He was the son of Jean-François Liautard, a locksmith contractor, and Charlotte Gabrielle Héloïse Vives, born in Paris, and who died in 1841 when Alexandre Liautard was only five years old. He had two sisters. His maternal uncle Étienne Gabriel Vives was a veterinarian in the military profession

Veterinary studies
In 1851, Alexandre Liautard was accepted as pupil at the École nationale vétérinaire d’Alfort (National veterinary school of Alfort?). In 1855, his father died and, five days later, Alexandre was expelled from Alfort « for a very serious breach of discipline » the subject of which is unknown. In addition, he had been unable to take the exams at the end of the first semester, due to illness. After halting his studies for several months he was admitted to the École vétérinaire de Toulouse (Veterinary School of Toulouse) where he finished his fourth year and obtained his diploma in 1856

Vétérinaire praticien à New York
Il arrive à New York en 1859 où il s’installe et où il ouvre rapidement une clinique vétérinaire. La ville est alors en pleine expansion malgré la Guerre de Sécession qui débute en 1861. Le développement est non seulement économique mais aussi universitaire ; quinze universités sont créées pendant cette période de guerre, dont Cornell, Swarthmore College et le MIT. Les esprits sont aussi très ouverts à la création d’écoles professionnelles.

Importance de la population équine aux États-Unis
La fin du XIXe siècle fut la période d’apogée du cheval. Le XIXe siècle, longtemps vu comme le siècle de la vapeur et du chemin de fer, fut avant tout le siècle du cheval. Transport ferroviaire et transport hippomobile étaient complémentaires. Durant le Gilded Age la population équine des États-Unis est passée de 7 millions en 1860 à 25 millions en 1900. Les chevaux de ville n'en représentaient que 11 à 12 % mais leur importance dans le développement urbain a considérablement surpassé cette importance relative. En 1900, la densité moyenne de chevaux était de 426 par mille carré dans les 46 plus grandes villes des États-Unis, elle était de 500 à New York et à Chicago. En 1900, 130 000 chevaux vivaient et travaillaient dans Manhattan, 74 000 à Chicago, 51 000 à Philadelphie. En 1879, le New York Times écrivait : « New York must move on wheels, the whole population must drive...This is obviously a « stable city ».