100 DISEASES OF THE EYE. 



centre of it, and either the fungus of which I have spoken will sprout, 

 and the eye will become of three or four times its natural size, or it 

 will gradually diminish and sink into the orbit. The fluid discharged 

 from it will be so acrid that it will excoriate the parts over which it 

 runs, and the lids will become swollen and ulcerated. 



The radical cure, and the most humane method to be adopted with 

 regard to the animal, is to remove the eye. Here the assistance of a 

 veterinary practitioner will be indispensable. 



If the owner does not think proper to adopt this method, let him 

 at least try to make the poor beast as comfortable as he can. The 

 part should be kept clean, and when there appears to be any addi- 

 tional inflammation, or swelling, or pain, the eye should be well 

 fomented with a decoction of poppy-heads. Let none of the stimu- 

 lating ointments or washes of the farrier be used. This would be 

 cruelly pimishing the animal, when no good purpose could possibly 

 be effected. ^ 



Sometimes the centre of the eye is not so much affected as the haw 

 at the inner corner of it. When that part merely enlarges from the 

 inflammation of the eye generally, the digitalis or the Goulard wash 

 will usually abate the swelling; and he would be both ignorant and 

 cruel who would remove it on account of simple enlargement accom- 

 panying inflammation ; but when it becomes hard and schirrous, and 

 especially if fungous granulations begin to spring from it, the case 

 assumes a different character. No sedative or other lotion will lessen 

 the schirrous or the fungous tumour. It must be removed by an ope- 

 ration ; — it must be cut away. The method of accomplishing this by 

 a skilful practitioner is not difScult. The beast must be thrown, and 

 the head held firmly down by an assistant. The operator then passes 

 a curved needle, armed with a double strong silk, through the body 

 of the tumour, and, drawing a portion of the silk through it, gives the 

 needle and the end of the silk to be held by another assistant. He 

 pulls the silk gently, but firmly, until he drawjy;he tumour as far as 

 possible from the corner of the eye, so that the attachment of its base 

 may be seen. The operator then with a knife dissects it out, or with 

 a pair of scissors snips it off.' No bleeding of any dangerous conse- 

 quence will follow, and the blood that is lost will abate the inflam- 

 mation, and ease the pain which the animal had previously endured. 

 The removal by ligature is a slow and not always effectual method 

 of proceeding; for it may not be possible to apply it accurately 

 around the very base of the tumour, and then the enlargement will 

 probably be reproduced. It is also necessary to tighten the ligature 

 every day, or every second day, and at each time the contest with 

 the beast must be renewed if this mode of removing the tumour is 

 adopted. 



