34 LESSONS IN HORSE JUDGING. 



the eyes are ' bloodshot.' If a hay-seed gets into 

 the eye this membrane reddens, and the eyelids swell 

 and are kept closed and are suffused with tears. 

 It is this membrane that is attacked in inflamma- 

 tion of the eye, so that yon must see that it is not 

 unduly red. In such horses there is a great quantity 

 of dark colouring matter in it, so that the white of 

 the eye is partly hidden behind it. This dark ap- 

 pearance is quite natural. 



28. — We now come to the two most important 

 structures of the eye, and without we know a good 

 deal about them we cannot judge a horse thoroughly, 

 but may be woefully cheated in purchasing a horse 

 where we cannot call to our aid a skilled expert or 

 veterinarian. The first of these two structures is 

 the 'iris,' which acts like a curtain to a window 

 and is really the curtain of the eye. It is a very 

 delicate moving muscle, flattened like a sheet of 

 paper and ovoid, having an ovoid hole in its very 

 centre, (Fig. 5, ^5), which as we have seen is 

 the 'pupil' of the eye through which the light 

 passes. Now this hole, or pupil, varies much in 

 size. When the eye is exposed to a bright light it 

 becomes very small, but in the dark it enlarges to 

 its widest. This is well seen in ourselves, but 

 better seen in the cat. Put a cat before a window 

 and you find the pupil diminishing almost to the size 

 of a pin point. Then this muscle acts by enlarging 

 or diminishing the ' pupil.' It does so in this way : 

 Fig. 5, A, 2, represents the iris as viewed from 



