130 AMAUROSIS. 



after some difficulty succeeded in regaining the cord, around 

 which he put a ligature, and besides, to make assurance doubly 

 sure, plugged the scrotum with tow, and sewed up the external 

 wound. Wine and a nutritious diet were prescribed, and all ap- 

 peared doing well, when all at once it was discovered that the 

 colt's sight was gone. Both eyes had become amaurotic; and 

 every treatment that could be suggested failed in restoring them. 



Another case the same writer relates, wherein amaurosis fol- 

 lowed the sudden suppression of lactation in a mare, who for eight 

 days had suckled her foal, owing to being allowed to drink heartily 

 of very cold water at the time she was in a profuse sweat, immedi- 

 ately after coming off a journey. This case partakes of the nature 

 of plethora or congestion. 



Of Sympathetic Amaurosis, one of the commonest causes in 

 horses is gorged stomach, producing that fatal disease called sto- 

 mach-staggers ; and the curious circumstance is, that the amau- 

 rosis occurs not as a symptom merely, but often as a sequel of the 

 disorder : it will come on one month, even two months, after the 

 apparent recovery of the patient, and thus may, unless he be 

 aware of it, deceive the practitioner into a belief that it is an 

 original or independent affection. Several cases of this descrip- 

 tion stand on record. Girard, junior, in the Recueil de Mtdi- 

 cine VtttTinaire, relates the case of a horse who was very subject 

 to " vertiginous colics," a late attack of which, after eight or ten 

 days, was succeeded by blindness, arising from complete amau- 

 rosis of both eyes ; and this continued for two years afterwards, 

 notwithstanding the horse remained in perfect health. M. Berger 

 Perriere, in the same Journal, for 1828, has also recorded cases 

 in which amaurosis was not only a concomitant, but, in some 

 horses that survived the attack, a sequel of stomach-staggers. 

 M. Riss, in the Memoirs before named, has detailed two cases, 

 in one of which he succeeded in restoring the sight after he had 

 been cured of his gastro-cephalic disorder, by blisters upon the 

 cheeks, setons in the neck, and laxative drenches. In the other, 

 which was that of a two-year-old colt, restored out of a fit of 

 apoplexy to health and vigour, the amaurosis continued, in spite 

 of all attempts to remove it. Mr. Youatt informs us, in his 



