524 THE HORSE. 
once be put into the skin covering the upper jaw, about two inches below 
the eye. On the next day, if “the white” still looks red, the bleeding must 
be repeated ; and, if the bowels are much moved, the tartar emetic may 
be continued without the aloes, while if they are obstinate, the dose of the 
latter may be increased. When the acute symptoms have somewhat 
diminished, a camel’s-hair brush may be dipped in wine of opium, and 
the eye gently touched with it daily, which will generally complete the 
cure. The diet must be iow, corn being forbidden entirely, and the stable 
should be kept very cool and airy. 
PURULENT OPHTHALMIA is confined to the conjun¢tiva, and it may be 
recognised by the profuse discharge of purulent fluid which takes place. 
The ¢ eyelids are much swollen, and the white of the eye is covered with a 
puffy red membrane, which rises up above the level of the cornea, some- 
times in fungoid excrescences. This form of inflammation is generally 
epidemic, and sometimes runs through a stable without a single exception. 
The treatment should be, at first, similar to that recommended for simple 
inflammation ; but when it reaches the chronic stage, a more powerful 
stimulus is required to restore the vessels to a healthy condition. A wash, 
composed as follows, must therefore be applied :— 
MANOR Osihie Go oon 6 o ¢ a dg o O- Oeieth 
Distilled Water. . 3 Loz: 
Mix, and drop a little into the eye from a ‘quill daily. 
Tritis, or inflammation of the iris, generally known as specific ophthal- 
mia, is the most formidable of all the diseases to which the eye is subject, 
and, if not checked, rapidly disorganises it; while it also, even when 
running an unusually favourable course, is very apt to produce opacity of 
the lens or its capsule (cataract). This pest of the stable is, undoubtedly, 
often brought on by over stimulation, first of the whole body, through the 
food, and, secondly, of the eyes themselves, through the foul emanations 
from the accumulated urine and dung. But these would produce no suck 
effect in a horse, unless he were predisposed to ophthalmia ; and we find 
that cattle and sheep are often fed to an enormous degree of obesity, in 
far closer and worse-ventilated stalls, without any prejudicial effect upon 
their eyes. It may, then, be assumed, that these organs in a horse have 
a tendency to put on inflammation ; but though these words are true they 
explain nothing of the real cause, and only serve to conceal our ignorance 
of it. There is another question bearing upon this subject, which is of the 
highest importance. Is the stock of blind horses more liable to blindness 
than that of sound ones? This has been discussed so often, that it is 
scarcely possible to throw any fresh light upon it, chiefly because it is so 
difficult to rely upon the facts adduced pro and con. Blindness is often 
the result of accident, and such cases are believed to be exceptional, and 
not at all likely to hand down the disease; but, on the contrary, I am 
inclined to believe that many of them show a marked tendency to its 
development ; for an accident never destroys both eyes, and when one 
follows the other, it is a pretty sure sign that there is a tendency to ophthal- 
mia. On the whole, it may, I think, be assumed, that the tendency to 
specific opkthalmia is handed down from generation to generation, and, 
consequently, that the offspring of a horse who has gone blind from that 
cause is peculiarly prone to it. Its symptoms appear very rapidly, the eye 
having been quite right over night, looks contracted and almost closed 
next morning, and on inspecting it closely “the white” looks of a deep red, 
the cornea looks muddy, and the coloured part of the eye (the iris) has 
