118 CATARACT. 



be given against it. On his arrival at the purchaser's the horse was attacked 

 with pneumonia, for which he was taken to Mr. R.'s infirmary. On entering 

 the stable there, the animal ran against the door-post. This led to an exa- 

 mination of his eyes : " in each was a slight cataract." The horse recovered 

 of his chest affection, and was afterwards sold at a very reduced price, " being 

 then quite blind." 



About the same time — October 1834 — Mr. R. was consulted about lame- 

 ness in a horse, a favourite with his master, and, after giving his opinion con- 

 cerning this, remarked, " Your horse has a worse disease, and which, I fear, 

 is incurable. Look at the off eye, and you will perceive the forerunner of 

 much mischief." The gentleman, astonished and angry, said, he " had had 

 the horse three or four years, and that there never had been any thing 

 the matter with the eyes, and that there was nothing now." Mr. R. was for- 

 bidden to do any thing to the eye, although the disease continued progress- 

 ing. About a month afterwards the gentleman called at Mr. R.'s house, and 

 said he was " sorry to confess that Mr. R.'s opinion was accurate." The 

 eye was weeping and its diseased state could no longer be denied. Proper 

 means were adopted ; but cataract gradually formed, and the horse is now 

 quite blind. 



" Is it not probable," Mr. Rawlins asks, " that on such circum- 

 stances as these the opinion (I believe erroneous) was founded, 

 that cataract can appear without previous ophthalmia]" 



Seven Years elapse, and Mr. Cartwright resumes the subject 

 in The Veterinarian for 1841. Messrs. Pott, Lucas, Hey, 

 and Abernethy, all surgeons of the first eminence of their day, 

 tliought that capsular cataracts were sometimes absorbed. Mr. 

 Tyrrell, Professor Owen, and Mr. H. W. Cooper (Surgeon to the 

 Honourable Artillery Company), are of a different opinion ; they 

 say " they never do." Among veterinarians, Messrs. Clay, Har- 

 ris, Spooner, Cartwright, and myself, think with Mr. Abernethy, 

 that a cataract may disappear. 



Mr. H. W. Cooper, the gentleman above alluded to, at the time 

 that the subject was brought afresh to our notice, in a praise- 

 worthy spirit stepped forward ; and, by sending two very interest- 

 ing communications to The Veterinarian, lent us a helping hand 

 in unravelling this intricate question. 



" The point in question," says Mr. Cooper, referring to a query 

 put by Mr. Cartwright, " would appear to be ' whether small cata- 

 racts, from the size of a coriander-seed downward, and which are 



