John McFadyean

Sir John McFadyean (1853, Wigtown, Scotland - 1941, London), was a Veterinary Surgeon and Professor of Veterinary science. John McFadyean was Principal of and a Professor of the Royal Veterinary College during 1894-1927. For the first few years after leaving school he worked on his father's farm but in October 1874 he entered the Dick Veterinary College at Edinburgh from where he graduated in April 1876. He was appointed lecturer in anatomy at his old College in the fall of the same year and from then until his retirement in 1927, he was engaged in teaching. His colleagues in his early days in Edinburgh included John Gray McKendrick, Daniel John Cunningham, and James Dewar.
In 1884, he published his first book, a text on the anatomy of the horse and followed it three years later by one on the osteology and the arthrology of domesticated animals. About this time however, his interests became fixed on bacteriology and pathology and the subsequent sections of comparative anatomy were never completed. He became the first British veterinary bacteriologist and he retained that position throughout his life. In 1888 he originated the "Journal of Comparative Pathology and Therapeutics" which he edited until the outbreak of the Second World War. He worked during his life with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons.

• The anatomy of the horse