310 The Diseases of Animals 



Seek and remove the cause. Foreign bodies can 

 often be removed by wiping the surface of the eyeball 

 with a soft silk handkerchief. Lime should be washed 

 out with an abundance of warm water. Then bathe 

 the eye with cold water, apply cold cloths or bags of ice 

 till the inflammation is reduced. If, however, inflam- 

 mation should persist, bathing the eye with hot water 

 three times daily for twenty minutes at a time is to be 

 recommended. Following this, apply a few drops of a 

 solution of boric acid, one dram in three ounces of 

 water, twice daily with a dropper. 



Periodic Ophthalmia, "Moon Blindness" 



Moon blindness is a periodic inflammation of the 

 deeper structures of the eye of horses. Its cause is 

 not known, although it is generally believed to be 

 produced by germs or parasites. It was formerly 

 thought that the changes of the moon caused this 

 disease, but this is wholly erroneous. Mares afflicted 

 with it should not be bred, as the disease tends to be 

 hereditary. 



There is inflammation resembling simple ophthalmia, 

 except that the surface of the eyeball is not so irri- 

 tated ; but the deeper structures are more clouded, 

 there is a profuse discharge of tears, the lids are 

 swollen and are kept partially closed to shield from 

 the light, the eyeball is very sensitive and appears to 

 bulge outward. The inflammation subsides in a week 

 or two ; the eye clears up, or nearly so; but there re- 

 mains around the iris a slight yellow band, which 



