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Caption: Book - History of the University (Powell)
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326 History University of Illinois among the students enrolled.13 One master mechanic even sold his shop and presented himself as a student. These men, who already knew their trade, were a vigorous and valuable addition to the student body. Thus was organized the first educational shop work in any American university. The university was beginning to attract the attention of men engaged in the industries and allied professions out in the state. Among the speakers at the agricultural lectures and discussions held at the university January 10 to 14, 1870, was a veterinary surgeon of Quincy, Illinois, H. J. Detmers, a German, trained in the severe and exact methods of. his native land. He outlined a course that he thought would be advisable for the industrial university and planned a stable and hospital. Commenting upon the condition of veterinary science as he found it in the United States, he said: ' ' The veterinary practice is with few exceptions in the hands of quacks, horse jockeys and ignorant blacksmiths. Maltreatment kills in this country more valuable animals than die by disease." For several years following Dr. Detmers was a member of the university staff as lecturer on veterinary science. It happened that a man named Whitney was present who had been a blacksmith since he was eleven years old. Naturally alert and curious, he had treasured the old dried bones of dead horses and studied them. He found that he could perform many operations while shoeing a horse; for instance, in the case of a quarter hoof; when the shell of the hoof was thick enough he bored a gimlet hole each side of it, put in a wire and tied the parts together. Again by properly shoeing a fine horse that was offered for sale at a fraction of his value because of a lame sore foot, he was able to cure the lameness. The relation of such experiences in the discussions impressed the hearers with the value of knowledge; forced attention upon it and gave to the work of the masses a new dignity. In the winter of 1870 instead of holding a single series of lectures at the university, three were held, one at the university, the second at Centralia, and another at Rockford. Apparently the plan was not considered especially adapted to the situation at that time for it was not continued in the years immediately following. u Third annual report of the board of trustees, p. 199.
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