IN SEARCH OF A HORSE. 187 



entangle himself in this unlucky illustration, till he 

 has locked himself up too close in the Bastile to find 

 his way out again ! But everybody does not know 

 that after the operation for the cataract, the great 

 anxiety of the surgeon is to exclude the light : the 

 patient being kept in a dark room for a week or two. 

 It is precisely on the same principle of abrupt 

 change being mischievous to the eye, that I condemn 

 the practice of leaving a stable in partial darkness. 

 I have frequently seen horses brought out of a place 

 as dark as a coal-hole, into the sudden glare of the 

 sun, and give visible indications of the pain and in- 

 convenience of the abrupt transition. Some of the 

 stables at the Swan with Two Necks, Lad Lane, are 

 under ground, and I have occasionally watched the 

 poor animals led out into the street on a fine day, 

 when they have for the first few minutes been so 

 dazzled as to run against the pole of a coach : 

 nothing is more likely to occasion chronic inflamma- 

 tion of the eye. It is also difficult, if not impracti- 

 cable, to keep a stable clean, when the light is so 

 sparingly admitted ; at all events it cannot be seen 

 whether this duty is discharged ; and I know from 

 long experience, that the class of people usually em- 



