The Many Plagues of Beasts: Veterinary Science and Public Policy at the Cape of Good Hope, 1877-1910

This study explores the early encounters of veterinary scientists with exotic animal diseases in southern Africa. Placing pastoralism at the heart of Cape society at the turn of the twentieth century, it delineates stock disease as a key variable in constraining the expansion of the colonial economy. It analyses the role of individual scientists, including the German bacteriologist, Robert Koch, in developing knowledge about disease and technologies of prevention. The role of farming communites and local knowledge in the development of veterinary policy is also stressed. While grounding veterinary policy in the demands and needs of colonist farmers, this study challenges the view that colonial scientists merely served the imperial or colonial interest. Instead it examines networks and linkages with scientists in Europe, the United States and Australia. Based on archival research in South Africa, as well as contemporary scientific publications, journals and newspapers this study makes an important contribution to the history of science in the colonies and to veterinary history.