220 THE HORSE 



portance to try to ascertain the cause. If a foreign body 

 has lodged upon the mucous membrane an effort should 

 be made to remove it. In any case the mucous mem- 

 brane hning the eyehds must be examined, though the 

 painful nature of this affection commonly renders such 

 an inspection and examination a matter of extreme 

 difficulty. If a hayseed or particle of chaff has lodged 

 upon the cornea it sets up both ophthalmia and inflamma- 

 tion of the cornea unless it is removed immediately the 

 accidenthappens. It is impossible to remove it after it has 

 been on the cornea for a few hours, owing to organisation 

 of the inflammatory exudit which has been poured out 

 on the cornea. In a case of this nature the animal becomes 

 at least temporarily blind, and in quite a number of 

 instances a permanent opacity of the cornea remains as a 

 legacy of this pre-existing inflammation. 



Treatment and Management. — It is hardly necessary to 

 say very much about this because the most economical 

 and efficient measure will be to have professional advice, 

 and the sooner the better. 



Certain palhative means may be adopted, such as, 

 for instance, the application of warm, fomentations, or the 

 use of a lead lotion (three grains of acetate of lead to each 

 ounce of water), or the application of boracic acid oint- 

 ment, night and morning. It is often a difficult matter 

 to remove a particle of chaff from the eye, and various 

 means have been employed, but a camel-hair brush dipped 

 in a strong solution of gum has been employed by the 

 writer in some instances with success. The difficulty in 

 the removal of a foreign body from the eye arises through 

 the existence of a third eyelid — the memhrana nictitans 

 — the functions of which are, obviously, for the removal 

 of foreign bodies from the eye. 



Opacity of the Cornea 

 We have already alluded to this in the preceding 

 paragraph. The degree of opacity varies considerably. 



