fi20 OxN SOUJJfDNESS, AXD THE 



that lie is either weak, or has an awkwardness of gait inconsistent with 

 safety. Many horses go lame for a considerable period after cutting 

 themselves severely; and others have dropped from the sudden agony, 

 and endangered themselves and their riders. Altliough perhaps not 

 constituting unsoundness, cutting is a serious defect, and very material 

 objection to a horse, and should therefore always have its consequences 

 guarded against by a special warranty. 



Enlarged Glands. — The enlargement of the glands under the jaw has 

 not been so much considered as it ought to have been in our estimate of 

 the soundness of the horse. Simple catarrh will occasionally, and severe 

 affection of the chest will generally, be accompanied by swelling of these 

 glands which does not subside for a considerable time after the cold or 

 fever has apparently been cured. To slight enlargements of the glands 

 under the jaw much attention need not be paid ; but if they are of con- 

 siderable size, and especially if they are tender, and the glands at the root 

 of the ear partake of the enlargement, and the membrane of the nose is 

 redder than it should be, we should hesitate in pronouncing that horse to 

 be sound. "We must consider the swelling as a symptom of disease. 



Enlarged Hock. — A horse with enlarged hock is unsound, the structure 

 of this complicated joint being so materially affected that, although the 

 horse may appear for a considerable time to be capable of ordinary work, 

 he will occasionally fail even in that, and a few days' hard work will 

 always lame him. 



The Eyes. — That inflammation of the eye of the horse which usually 

 terminates in blindness of one or both eyes, has the peculiar character of 

 receding or disappearing for a time, once or twice, or thrice, before it fully 

 runs its course. The eye, after an attack of inflammation, regains so 

 nearly its former natural brilliancy that a person even well acquainted 

 with horses will not always recognise the traces of former disease. After 

 a time, however, the inflammation returns, and the result is inevitable. A 

 horse that has had one attack of this complaint is long afterwards unsound, 

 however perfect the eye may seem to be, because he carries about wdth 

 him a disease that will probably again break out, and eventually destroy 

 the sight. Whether, therefore, he may be rejected or not, depends on the 

 possibility of proving an attack of inflammation of the eye, prior to the 

 purchase. N^ext to direct evidence of this are appearances about the eye, 

 of Avhich the veterinary surgeon at least ought not to be ignorant. 

 Allusion has been made to them in page 164. They consist chiefly of a 

 puckering of the lids towards the inner corner of one or both eyes — a 

 difference in the size of the eyes, although perhaps only a slight one, and 

 not discovered except it be looked for — a gloominess of the eye — a dulness 

 of the iris — a little dulness of the transparent part of the eye generally — a 

 minute, faint, dusky spot, deep in the eye, and generally with little 

 radiations of white lines proceeding from it. If these symptoms, or the 

 majority of them, existed at the time of purchase, the animal had assuredly 

 been diseased before, and was unsound. Starting has been considered as 

 an equivocal proof. It is usually an indication of defective sight, but it is 

 occasionally a trick. Connected, however, vrith the appearances just 

 described, it is a very strong corroborative proof. There is another cause 

 of blindness, however, by Avhich the inexperienced horseman may be 

 woefully deceived, that is, Gkdia serena, or paralysis of the optic nerve. 

 In this irremediable affection, the textures of the eye appear natural and 

 unimpaired ; there is no apparent alteration of striicture, no cloudiness, 

 no opacity, the only indication being the large and immovable state of the 

 pupils, which remain equally distended in the dusk of evening and the 

 glare of the noon-day sun. 



