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HORSE— DISEASES AND REMEDIES. 



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 lat- 

 ter 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 com- 

 plete the cure. The diet must be low, 

 corn being forbidden entirely, and the 

 stable should be kept very cool and airy. 

 Purulent ophthalmia is confined to 

 the conjunctiva, and it may be recog- 

 nized by the profuse discharge of puru- 

 lent fluid which takes place. The eyelids 

 are much swollen, and the white of the 

 eye is covered with a puffy red mem- 

 brane, which rises up above the level of 

 the cornea, sometimes in fungoid excres- 

 cences. This form of inflammation is 

 generally epidemic, and sometimes runs 

 through a stable without a single excep- 

 tion. 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 : 



Take of Nitrate of Silver - - - 6 grains. 

 Distilled Water - - - I ounce. 

 Mix, and drop a little into the eye from a quill 

 daily. 



Iritis, or inflammation of the iris, gener- 

 ally known as specific ophthalmia, is the 

 most formidable of all the diseases to 

 which the eye is subject, and, if not 

 checked, rapidly disorganizes it ; while it 

 also, even when running an unusually fa- 

 vorable course, is very apt to produce 

 opacity of the lens or its capsule (cata- 

 ract). This pest of the stable is, un- 

 doubtedly, often brought on by over stim- 

 ulations, first of the whole body, through 

 the food, and, secondly, of the eyes them- 

 selves, through the foul emanations from 

 the accumulated urine and dung. But 

 these would produce no such effect in a 

 horse, unless he were predisposed to oph- 

 thalmia; and we find that cattle and 

 sheep are often fed to an enormous de- 

 gree 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 ex- 

 plain nothing ot 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 im- 

 portance. 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 ad- 

 duced pro and con. Blindness is often the 

 result of accident, and such cases are be- 

 lieved to be exceptional, and not at all 

 likely to hand down the disease ; but, on 

 the contrary, we are inclined to believe 

 that many of them show a marked ten- 

 dency to its development; for an acci- 

 dent 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, we think, 

 be assumed, that the tendency to specific 

 ophthalmia is handed down from gen- 

 eration 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 colored 

 part of the eye (the iris) has lost its bright 

 color, and often shows one or two white 

 specks upon it (these must not be con- 

 founded with the specks on the cornea). 

 As the disease advances, the intolerance 

 of light is very great, the cornea and iris 

 become gradually more muddy, and either 

 lymph is thrown out on the latter in the 

 shape of white patches, or pus is secreted 

 and fills the chamber of the aqueous 

 humour, in part or wholly. If the treat- 

 ment is sufficiently energetic, these signs 

 abate, the pus or lymph is absorbed, and 

 the eye recovers its transparency; but 

 there are generally some traces left be- 

 hind. Bleeding (either from the jugular 

 or the angular veins of the face), moder- 

 ate purging, and a seton, are the remedies 

 best calculated to effect this object, con- 

 joined with an airy stable and a light diet- 



I Unfortunately, however, iritis is almost 



