114 THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 



employed for this purpose. The animal should be placed in 

 a darkened box, to prevent the irritation that would other- 

 wise be caused by the light. Give a moderate laxative or 

 purgative, as the nature of the case seems to demand, after 

 which the exhibition of diuretics (colchicum preferably) will 

 be attended with benefit. Hot or cold applications to the 

 eye, according to the season, will relieve irritation. After 

 irritation is relieved, use belladonna, or its alkaloid atropine, 

 freely as a local application, as well as giving it internally. 

 Belladonna applied right over the eyeball is about the best 

 remedial agent known, as besides relieving pain and irrita- 

 bility, it also tends to prevent adhesion. Its alkaloid atro- 

 pine is equally efficacious, and may be used instead, in the 

 proportion of atropine sulph., grs. iii. — iv. — v., to aquae ^i., 

 to be applied once or twice daily. Atropine may also be 

 given internally. Potassae nitras or potassium iodide may 

 be given in the usual doses in conjunction with colchicum. 

 In cases where the pain is pretty severe, apply the ordinary 

 mixture of tr. opii et plumbi acetas. Puncture of the 

 cornea, as recommended by some practitioners, is not suc- 

 cessful. Scarification and fomentations for some time after 

 are often beneficial ; but, as before stated, it is useless to treat 

 the disease with a view of effecting a radical cure, as it is 

 incurable, and usually terminates in cataract and blindness. 

 Cataract. — A cataract may be defined to be an opacity of 

 the crystalline lens, or its capsule. In some cases a cataract 

 may result from an injury to the eye, and occasionally 

 appears without any previous appreciable irritation ; but in 

 a very large majority of cases it occurs as a result of periodic 

 ophthalmia. Cataracts vary in size, shape, and situation, 

 and are of various kinds, as the false cataract, which con- 

 sists of a deposition of lymph on the anterior capsule, in 

 which case the lens is not affected, and removal of the 

 deposit will be effected by absorption. True cataracts are 



