86 THE HORSE. 



that his horse should bo as neat and trim all over as art can n.ake him, tlie 

 very eye-lashes are generally sacrificed. What has the poor animal suf- 

 fered, when, travelling in the noon of day, the full blaze of the sun has 

 fallen upon his eyes ! and how many accidents have probably happened, 

 from his being dazzled by the light, but which have been attributed to other 

 causes. 



If the horse has no eyebrow, there are several hairs or bristles scattered 

 on the upper eyelid, and there is a projecting fold of the lid which dis- 

 charges nearly the same office. It is more conspicuous in old horses than in 

 young ones. Some horsemen do not like to see it, and associate the idea 

 of it with weakness or disease of the eye. This is perfectly erroneous. It 

 i'^ a provision of nature to accomplish a certain purpose, and has nothing to 

 do either with health or disease. 



On the lower lid is a useful provision to warn the horse of the near 

 approach of any object that might incommode or injure him, in the form of 

 long projecting hairs or bristles, and which are plenteously embued with 

 nervous influence, so that the slightest touch shall put the animal on his 

 guard. We would request any of our readers, by whom the experiment 

 never has been made, to toucli very slightly the extremity of one of these 

 hairs. They will be surprised to observe the sudden convulsive twitching 

 of the lid, rendering the attack of the inseci| absolutely impossible. Those 

 ignorant grooms, however, who cut away the eye-lashes, do not spare these 

 useful feelers. 



The eye is exposed to the action of the atmospheric aii', and the process 

 of evaporation, destructive of its transpai'ency, is continually going on. 

 The eye of the horse, or the visible part of the eye, is, likewise, more 

 prominent and larger than in the human being, and the animal is often sub- 

 ject to extreme annoyance from dust and insects, while he has no hands or 

 other guard to defend himself from the torture which they occasion. Wliat 

 is the provision of nature against this ? Under the lid, and a little within the 

 outer corner of the upper lid, is a large irregular body, the lachrymal gland, 

 comparatively larger than in the human being, secreting an aqueous fluid, 

 and which fluid slowly issuing out from the gland, and, more especially, 

 pressed out of it by the act of winking, flows over the eye, supplies it with 

 moisture, and washes off* ail impurities. Human ingenuity could not have 

 selected a situation from which the fluid could be conveyed over the eye 

 «vith more advantage for this purpose. 



When this fluid is secreted in an undue quantity, and flows over the eye, 

 it is called tears. An increased flow of tears is produced by any thing that 

 irritates the eye, and, therefore, a constant accompaniment and symptom of 

 inflammation. A horse with any degree of weeping, or the flowing of the 

 tears down the cheek, should be regarded with much suspicion. In the 

 human being an unusual secretion of tears is often caused by bodily pain, 

 and emotions of the mind ; and so it is occasionally in the horse. We have 

 seen it repeatedly, under acute pain or brutal usage. John Lawrence, 

 speaking of the cruelty exercised (and we know still too often exercised) 

 by some dealers, in what they call " firing" a horse before he is led out for 

 sale, in order to arouse every spark of mettle, says : " More than fifty years 

 have passed away, and I have before my eyes a poor mare stone blind, 

 exquisitely shaped, and showing all the marks of higli blood, whom I saw 

 unmercifully cut with a whip a quarter of an hour before the sale, to bring 

 her to the use of her stiflened limbs, zckile the tears zvere Irlclding down 

 her cheeks." 



Having passe(f over the eye, the fluid is conveyed by the little canal of 



