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Show oo FIRST OF ANIMAL HOSPITALS More Than 2,000 Years Ago One Was Eotabllshed In India, Says an Authority. The New York women who havo opened a free animal dispensary in this city are regarded as pioneers In a good work. Ab a matter of fact ono inuat go to the Orient and look back more than 2,000 years to find the first animal hospital known. The famous Buddhist emperor of India, In-dia, Asoka, whose long rolgn from 2G4 to 227 B. C. abounded In many good works, was probably tho earliest to establish a hospital for the treatment of nnlmnls, Bays Our Dumb Animals. Asoka. was a truo humanitarian as well as a moBt powerful sovereign and although ruling a vast domain became be-came deeply Impressed by the horrorB of warfare. He gave up his desire for conquest and the rock Inscriptions, which aro still extint, record such beneficent edicts of his as tho counseling of planting Bhade trees, the digging of wells, sending out of missionaries, appointment ap-pointment of special officers to supervise super-vise charlticB, the establishing of hos-pltalB hos-pltalB for human kind and animals It Is of lntorest to know that tho last remaining of Asoka's hospitals was devoted to animals It covered twenty-five acres and wan divided Into proper wards and courts for the accommodation ac-commodation of tho patients. When an animal waa sick or injured Usi master had only to bring It to the hoaj pltal, where It wns cared for without regard to the caste of Its owner, ana where,, if necessary, it found an asylum asy-lum in old age. |