CATARACT. 113 



in this town, purchased a bay pony with a cataract in each eye : he was igno- 

 rant of the fact until he shewed the animal to me. They were in appearance 

 extremely dense, ybrmerZ in the centre of the lens, about the size of small white 

 peas ; and although the lens was transparent on each side, I conceived the 

 vision of the pony must have been imperfect : but his owner continued to 

 ride and drive him many years ; and he has frequently assured me that he was 

 the safest animal that he ever possessed^ and that he never discovered any de- 

 fect of vision." 



Mr. W. C. Spooner, V.S. (then at Winchester, now at South- 

 ampton), is the gentleman who next enters this interesting field of 

 investigation ; and he commences with stating, that he tliinks the 

 facts brought forward by Messrs. Cartwright and Perry set one 

 question at rest, viz., " that cataract may and does occur indepen- 

 dently of previous active inflammation ." 



" Mr. Cartwright says that a cataract may take place in a month : this I 

 believe, for I have known it occur in less time. Mr. Clay avers the same ; 

 but he does not say, nor do any of his cases shew, that it can be produced in 

 this short period without acute inflammation." — " Then, again, no one ima- 

 gines, that, when cataract occurs as the sequel of active inflammation, it ever 

 becomes absorbed." — " The forms and duration of ophthalmia, the frequency 

 of its attacks, and the degree of disorganization produced by each attack, are 

 extremely uncertain and dissimilar." 



" The two following cases will, in some measure, corroborate Mr. Cart- 

 wright's remarks : — 



" A four-year-old horse was bought two years and a half since, when I dis- 

 covered small cataracts in each eye. I rode him, and, though he did not shy, 

 he would blunder against a rail or gate. He was put to fast work in a mail, 

 where he still continues, and he has had no inflammation in his eyes since ; 

 and when I last saw him, a few months ago, the cataracts were much the 

 same." 



" Some time since I was requested to examine a horse that was lame, when 

 I perceived a cataract in one eye. The owner, a surgeon, said he had had 

 no inflammatory attack during the three months he had been in his possession ; 

 and the previous possessor denied any thing being the matter with his eyes 

 before." 



Mr. Spooner's observations were followed by some remarks (in 

 the same VETERINARIAN) of my own : before, however, I refer to 

 them, I shall lay before my reader some cases in elucidation of the 

 same subject from Mr. Harris, V.S., Bromyard. 



VOL. III. - Q 



