Recurrent Ophthalmia hi Solipeds. \foonblind7iess. 417 



Provence, Languedoc, Bassigny and Belgium to the dr}^ cal- 

 careous portions of Champaigne also escaped further trouble. In 

 many such cases the e^^es already slightly affected would mate- 

 rially and permanentl}' improve. 



Finally the influence of heredity is never to be over looked. 

 The ideal system would be to have all stallions professionally ex- 

 amined, and licenses granted to such only as are free from this 

 affection, and to place the owners of such horses under obliga- 

 tion to serve only, mares the eyes of which are sound. This 

 might be enforced as a state or county ordinance. Serious diffi- 

 culties it is true stand in the way of such a measure. The 

 horse which has an extraordinary record on the track, and to 

 the development of the ophthalmia of which, overwork has 

 doubtless contributed, will be run after by breeders who seek 

 speed at any cost, and it may be questioned whether the State 

 has any right to interfere with the prospective profit which may be 

 expected from the reproduction of the strain of blood. But aside 

 from such fanc\' products as racers and trotters, this objection has 

 much less force. For carriage, riding and road horses and for 

 the draught and agricultural animal the advantage of sound eyes 

 so greatly over balances all consideration of special values with 

 imperfect eyes, that a statute which will prevent the propagation 

 of such unsoundness is more than justified in every case. The 

 importance of this will be admitted when it is considered that in 

 the great majority of cases, the young animal is attacked after it 

 leaves the hands of the breeder, and therefore a high price is se- 

 cured for a subject which is almost certainly doomed to become 

 blind in given surroundings. Such a law would work well in 

 every locality. In the low, damp region where the disease pre- 

 vails habitually, the unprofitable breeding would practically 

 cease, unless a race could be secured which was proof against the 

 infection. The value of such a race could hardly be over-esti- 

 mated. On the high, dry lands, on the other hand, the natural 

 tendency to immunity would be still further enhanced, as the 

 most susceptible animals which contracted the disease, in even 

 such a healthful district, could be in no sense fit for reproduction, 

 and should therefore be doubly condemned. 



In the case of the mare the proprietor is under strong tempta- 

 tion to ignore the sanitary measure under consideration. When 

 27 



