Eelco Alta

Eelco Alta (Makkum, Súdwest-Fryslân, 23 June 1723 - Bozum, 17 August 1798) was a Frisian clergyman, theologian, and veterinarian.

Eelco Alta was born in 1723 in the coastal village of Makkum, and studied theology at the University of Franeker from 1737 until 1745, when he started as a minister in the nearby villages of Beers and Jellum. After nine years he moved to the main protestant church of Boazum, where he was to spend the next fifty years. He was politically active in the last years of the Dutch Republic, siding (although not explicitly) with the forces of republican "Patriotism", partly for religious reasons. During the royalist backlash of the late 1780s, this caused him some problems: some of his sons were actively persecuted, while he was forced to leave Bozum between 1790 and the Batavian Revolution of 1795. Thereafter, he shortly served as a member of the newly installed parliament of the Batavian Republic, but afterward admitted to prefer spending his time with his congregation.

Already during his time at university, Alta's aptitude for scholarly work outside of theology was recognized and resulted in his (unsuccessful) candidature for the chair of Philosophy at the University of Franeker. He made important contributions to veterinary medicine and published, among others, about the natural causes of cattle diseases (Leeuwarden, 1765). In 1780, the Society for the Avancement of Agriculture in Amsterdam (Maatschappij ter bevordering van den Landbouw) awarded him 30 golden guineas for his efforts in promoting vaccination against Rinderpest, about which he submitted an extensive treaty to the society.

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