CATARACT. 121 



and appeared albugineous and diffuse rather in its character; and, withal, 

 was so plainly perceptible that any casual observer could see it without 

 difficulty : moreover, while I was closely and attentively examining the eye, it 

 appeared to me I could distinctly see behind the opacity. My friend, Dr. 

 Campbell, passing at the time, I availed myself of his professional opinion. 

 After careful and close inspection, and comparison of one eye with the other, 

 Dr. Campbell gave it as his opinion that it was a cataract of the spurious 

 kind — that it consisted, in fact, of matter deposited in the posterior chamber, 

 a portion of which he thought he could perceive within the circumference of 

 the pupil. Notwithstanding I pronounced the horse unsound in consequence 

 of it, I accompanied my condemnatory judgment with a recommendation that 

 the mare be not rejected on account of her eye ; it being my opinion that the 

 " cataract" was of a nature that had been said, and seemed to me to be, ab- 

 sorbable. Three weeks from this time — I not having seen the mare in the 

 interval — her eye was free from all opacity. 



On a subject of so much consequence as this, and one concerning 

 which it is of so much importance that we should hold consonant 

 opinions, I hope my readers will not feel that I have unnecessarily 

 taken up their time or my own pages in the transcription of cases 

 I have made : all that remains to be done, is, to come to the safest 

 deductions we can from the various facts and opinions contained in 

 the recited cases. 



First, it appears that cataract may arise from other causes, 

 save periodic ophthalmia, although that disease must still be ad- 

 mitted to be the ordinary precursor of it. 



Secondly, that cataract may form without any detectible pre- 

 existing inflammation whatever in the eye. 



Thirdly, that cataracts may form within a comparatively short 

 time — a few days, perhaps. 



Fourthly, that, in an equally short time, cataracts may disap- 

 pear or become absorbed. 



Fifthly, that cataracts, bearing this evanescent or absorbable 

 character, are certainly not of the lenticular class : they may be 

 capsular ; but, in my opinion, are more likely to turn out of the 

 spurious description. 



Sixthly : it appears quite certain that cataract, the product of 

 periodic ophthalmia, has never been known to undergo absorption, 

 or even any change for the better. 



VOL. III. R 



