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I am the more particular in thus describing the 

 utihty and action of the haw, because such is the 

 gross ignorance of the majority of country farriers, 

 that when this membrane has been affected by a 

 temporary inflammation of the eye, and thus be- 

 come enlarged and more prominent than usual, it 

 has been regarded as a diseased excrescence, and 

 actually extirpated, to the permanent injuiy of the 

 horse. Instead of endeavouring to subdue the 

 inflammation by the ordinary remedies, it has ap- 

 peared the simplest way to remove the diseased 

 part ; and thus the eye, though for a time appar- 

 ently restored to health, has in the end been lost 

 by the casual introduction of impurities, such as 

 dust, flies, &c., which there no longer remains any 

 natural means of removing. It will scarcely be 

 credited by general readers, that so prevalent is 

 this error as to have found a place in that learned 

 work, the Encyclopaedia of Rees, where, under the 

 article haw, this membrane is described as a dis- 

 eased tumour in the eye, and instructions are given 

 for removing it ! ! ! This may give a useful hint 

 not to confide very readily in the opinions of those 

 farriers, whose station in life justifies a suspicion 

 that their knowledge is merely practical, and not 

 founded upon scientific instruction. 



The first point to which I would direct attention, 



