fil 



respective localities of the first tive ol the army corps above 

 mentioaed; while ia the districts of those last mentioned 

 the disease was comparatively rare. 



Cloudy weather, or moist air, so common and constant on 

 wet lands, is said to be a factor in causing this disease. Kank, 

 succulent fodders, grown on wet lands, associated Avith a 

 damp, sultry atmosphere, is conducive to the production of 

 a lymphatic temperament or constitution — a horse with a 

 coarse open texture of bones and muscles, with an excess of 

 connective tissue, with thick skin, legs covered with an 

 abundance of long hair and with labored, sluggish move- 

 ments. No doubt, such animals are predisposed to moon- 

 blindness. Fodder, hay or grass, from low, swampy or wet 

 soils may also contain the germs or malarial parasites which 

 are believed by some to cause this disease. In some locali- 

 ties of Eufopa the hay and rodders, grown upjn certain soils, 

 are said to be the cause, or the carriers of the cause from 

 the soil to the animal. 



A constant stimulating diet of corn, rye or barley grain — 

 especially in summer or when given to the growing colt — 

 contain too much of the fat and heat producing food and 

 not sufficient proportion of the muscle and bone forming 

 food; the horse so fed may be very fat but less able to resist 

 the germs of disease, more liable not only to moonblindness 

 but also to "big head" and other constitutional diseases, 

 ('onstant feeding of corn will certainly make the periodic 

 attacks occur more frequently and also augment their inten- 

 sity. This has been proven by a number of trials. A reli- 

 able farmer living near Auburn had a fine young mare that 

 had bepn attacked two or three times ; he believed the corn 

 was making the disease worse; hence he withheld the corn 

 and thereafter fed her upon oats; the eyes were not again 

 attacked, and they recovered so completely that her owner 

 could never observe anything wrong with them. Certainly 

 the feeding of corn alone did not produce the disease, but 



