116 HORSEMANSHIP. 



admission of light falling upon the optic nerve. But if 

 the eye be thus defective, the disease is known as 

 imperfect and perfect amaurosis, both of which are 

 produced bj the congestion of the minute blood- 

 A^essels of the retina. Any cloudiness or opacity is 

 the result of former or present inflammation, and may 

 indicate the presence of cataract. One of the best 

 means to detect the commencement of this disease, 

 or the disease itself, is to exclude the daylight entirely 

 from the stable, and to hold a lighted candle at such 

 an angle to the eye as to expose the slightest speck or 

 shade. Generally the eye will be better examined 

 when the light is held near to the cheek, and rather 

 underneath the line of the eye. In this light the 

 healthy eye will appear as clear and pellucid as the 

 purest water. The very large and prominent eye 

 bespeaks indistinctness of vision, and is generally found 

 in horses that shy and turn round upon meeting with 

 strange objects. The hollow over the eye, or the 

 depression of the roof of the orbit, is increased by 

 age through the absorption of the fatty matter in 

 which the eye is imbedded. This hollow is also 

 common to young horses whose dams have been of 

 great age at the period of gestation. The inner lining 



