124 CATARACT. 



worthy servant, into a shy, mistrustful, dangerous creature, whom 

 we could no longer confide in ] 



The Operation. — Undaunted by any of these grave con- 

 siderations, some veterinarians have been intrepid enough to ven- 

 ture upon an operation for cataract. D'Arboval informs us that 

 Dupuy, and that celebrated surgeon Dupu3^tren, have both essayed 

 in horses to couch and comminute lenses, and in that manner procure 

 absorption of the opaque body : but with no sort of success; for 

 neither could the lens, as in man, be effectually broken down, nor 

 was it found to undergo absorption after the operation ; and, more- 

 over, the inflammation occasioned in the eye by the attempts was 

 of a nature to destroy the structure of parts that had, up to that 

 time, remained sound. Tenon operated by extraction no less than 

 eleven times, but failed, in spite of every precaution, in all his 

 cases. 



For the purpose of fixing the eye under the operation, various 

 kinds of tenacula and specula have been invented by our ingeni- 

 ous continental brethren ; among which the instruments of Le- 

 blanc appear to be the most approved. And of the three modes 

 of operating, viz., by Extraction, by Displacement (formerly called 

 Couching )y and hy Division, Leblanc prefers displacement: indeed, 

 extraction he has altogether abandoned, as being an operation un- 

 suited, on various accounts, to the eye of the horse. Simple dis- 

 placement of the opaque body presents less difficulty in the per- 

 formance, exposes the eye to less risk of accident, and is followed 

 by less serious consequences than the other operations. We learn 

 from D'Arboval, that both Beauclerc and Leblanc have succeeded 

 by this simplest of the operations. Beauclerc assures us that seve- 

 ral horses operated on by him recovered their sight. Leblanc 

 operated on an Hungarian horse seven years old, on a one-eyed 

 ass, on a blind ass, on a blind mare, on a black horse nine years 

 old, on a three-year-old black mare, and on a horse from three to 

 four years old, all of which had vision, more or less distinct, con- 

 ferred upon them. Such success, however, has not attended all 

 Leblanc's experiments. In fifteen other operations he failed ; at- 

 tributing his failures to the internal condition of the organs with 

 which his instruments came into collision. Gohier has operated on 



