William Youatt

[2] In 1828, Youatt began to deliver a series of lectures and demonstrations to veterinary students at his private residence and infirmary in Nassau Street.

This journal, which was still in existence in 1900, was kept alive in the early years only by Youatt's dogged perseverance, at a time when even his co-editor, Percivall, wished to abandon the venture.

[3] He was an entrant in an essay-writing competition in 1837 where a benefactor of the RSPCA offered a prize of one hundred pounds for the best piece:[4] The Essay required is one which shall morally illustrate, and religiously enforce, the obligation of man towards the inferior and dependent creatures—their protection and security from abuse, more especially as regards those engaged in service, and for the use and benefit of mankind—on the sin of cruelty—the infliction of wanton or unnecessary pain, taking the subject under its various denominations—exposing the specious defence of vivisection on the ground of its being for the interests of science—the supplying the infinite demands on the poor animal in aid of human speculations by exacting extreme labour, and thereby causing excessive suffering—humanity to the brute as harmonious with the spirit and doctrines of Christianity, and the duty of man as a rational and accountable creature.Youatt's essay was not selected as the winning entry.

[6] Youatt's book prompted an extensive review by William Karkeek in The Veterinarian in 1839 on the subject of animal souls and the afterlife.

The difficulty occasioned by his refusal to answer a professional question rather impertinently put to him was overruled by the chairman, who handed him his diploma on the spot.

According to the coroner's inquest, Youatt poisoned himself with prussic acid, which was found in a vial on his writing table, and confirmed to be in his stomach by the laboratory at University College London.

[11] In 1830 Youatt entered into an arrangement with the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge to write a series of handbooks on the breeds, management, and diseases of the different animals of the farm.