232 Management and Treatment of the Horse. 



disputes about the eye of the horse ; one in 

 particular occurred at a recent show at Islington, 

 where Professor Prit chard disqualified the winner 

 of the first prize in consequence of cataract in the 

 eye. This is one of the most difficult diseases of 

 the eye for a practical man to detect, and unless 

 the practitioner is himself blessed with good 

 eyesight, and has been taught by a thoroughly 

 practical man how to stand, and how to place 

 the horse^s eyes to the light, the chances are 

 that he will pass the horse as sound while it is 

 in fact suffering from imperfect vision. When 

 living in the neighbourhood of Hitchin, my em- 

 ployer had a horse that he had hunted for some 

 years, yet this horse had as bad a cataract in the 

 near eye as any horse I ever saw that was not 

 blind with it. This horse was passed as sound, 

 and the owner never knew that the animal had 

 a bad eye, yet to a minute observer of small 

 things the horse told instantly, upon going up 

 to it on its near side, that its vision was impaired 

 with that eye, as it always held its head from 

 you if approached on the near side, and did not 

 do so if approached on the off side. Dealers in 

 horses know well what a cataract is, and are 

 always anxious, if the horse has a defect in the 

 eye, to bring it at once into a strong light, so . 

 that the purchaser or the examiner may be un- 

 able to detect this disease. The cause of cataract 

 is, in most instances, from inflammation, or the 

 result of a blow ; this causes a slight cloudy ap- 

 pearance of the retina, which cannot be seen un- 

 less the examiner brings the horse out gradually 



