!;)•_> SPECIFIC Ol'IITHALMIA, 



if there be a "wliito object immediately before the eye, as a ver}- light 

 Avaistcoat, or m.uch display of a white neckcloth, the reflection may puzzle 

 an experienced observer, and has misled the careless one. The coat should 

 be buttoned up, and the white cravat carefully concealed. The cause of 

 this inflammation is undoubtedly a strong predisposition to it in the eye 

 of the horse, but assisted by over exertion and the heated and empoisoned 

 air of many stables. The heated air has much to do with the production 

 of the disease ; the empoisoned air a great deal more ; for every one must 

 have observed, on entering a close stable early in the morning, strong 

 fames of ammonia, which were painful to his eyes, and caused the tears to 

 flow. What must be the constant action of this on the eyes of the horse? 

 The dung of the horse, and the litter of the stables, when becoming putrid, 

 emit fumes of volatile alkali or ammonia. Often, very soon after the 

 evacuations are voided, they begin to yield an immense quantity of this 

 pungent gas. If we are scarcely able to bear this when we stand in the 

 stable for only a few minutes, we need not wonder at the prevalence of in- 

 flammation in the eye of the stabled horse, nor at the difficulty of abating 

 inflammation while this organ continues to be exposed to such painful 

 excitement. Stables are now much better ventilated than they used to be, 

 and ophthalmia is far fi'om being so jsrevalent as it was fifty years ago. 

 This disease generally commences during the night, and is usually de- 

 tected in the morning, as soon as the horse is turned in his stable to have 

 his head and neck dressed. In many cases one eye only suffers, the attack 

 lasting ten days or a foi-tnight, then subsiding, and returning peiiodically 

 every three weeks or a month. When this is the case, the other eye en- 

 tirely escapes, receiving additional value from its comparison \\T.th its un- 

 fortunate fellow. But unfortunately this too often is not the case ; but on 

 the subsidation of the attack in one eye, the mischief is brewing in the 

 other ; it has to go throiTgh the same devastating process, and the result 

 to both is derangement, worse almost in its eifects than complete dig- 

 organisation. 



The propagation of various diseases, and this more than any other, from 

 the sii-e to his progeny, has not been sufficiently considered by breeders. 

 Let a stalhon that is blind, or whose sight is defective, possess every other 

 point and quality that can be wished, yet he is worse than useless ; for a 

 very considerable proportion of his offspring will most assuredly inherit 

 weak eyes or become totally blind. There is no fact better established 

 than this, there is no more positive proof of the existence of hereditary 

 disease than this : in many instances the entire progeny of the blind sire 

 or dam have been implicated in the destructive disease. 



The most frequent consequences of this disease are cloudiness of the eye, 

 and cataract. The clou^diness is singular in its nature. It will change in 

 twenty-foui' hours from the tliinnest film to the thickest opacity, and, as 

 suddenly, the eye will nearly regain its perfect transpai'ency, but only to 

 lose it, and as rapidly, a second time. 



The most barbarous methods have been resorted to for the pui'pose of 

 removing this cloudiness. Chalk, and salt, and sugar, and even pounded 

 glass have been introduced into the eye mechanically to rub off" the film. 

 It was forgotten that the cloudiness Avas the effect of inflammation ; that 

 means so harsh and cruel were veiy likely to recall that inflammation ; 

 that these rough and sharp substances must of necessity inflict exciii- 

 ciating pain ; and that, after all, it generally was not a film on the surface 

 of the cornea, but a dimness pervading its substance, ^nd even sinking 

 deep within it, and therefore not capable of being removed. Where the 

 cloudiness can be removed, it will be best effected by first abating inflam- 

 mation, and then exciting the absorbents to take up the grey deposit, by 



