Abstract

Over the last three decades, historians have increasingly regarded animals as legitimate and important subjects of inquiry. Studied both in their relations to humans, and as independent actors, animals have shed new light upon colonial, global, economic, political, social, cultural and environmental histories. Simultaneously, the boundaries of medical history have expanded to incorporate veterinary medicine and the non-human animal. Evidence is mounting of the extent to which medical knowledge practices were grounded in the study of animals. Nevertheless, it is fair to say that current understandings of the historical connections between human and animal health are somewhat limited. This short article will begin by developing this point. Then, with reference to the contemporary scientific movement for “One Health” and the rise of animal studies, it will argue for the need to develop more expansive and imaginative conceptions of how animals have molded medical history. Some of the possibilities of this new approach will be
illustrated by reference to recent studies and the findings of research in progress on the history of animals and their diseases within nineteenth-century British medicine.