DISEASES PECULIAR TO BREEDING STOCK. 293 



CHAPTER IV. 



DISEASES PECULIAR TO BREEDING STOCK. 

 PART I. 



The following extracts from articles prepared 

 at my request, by Prof. James Law, of Cornell 

 University, for publication, at various times, 

 under my direction, treat especially of matters 

 to which this chapter is devoted and will, I am 

 sure, be found highly interesting and valuable 

 to my readers: 



HYGIENE OF THE EYE.* 



"As ye sow so shall ye reap," is as true of the propagation 

 of animals as of the propagation of grain or weeds. In the 

 case of sightless or partially blind horses it is especially 

 true. In whatever country or district we find blind mares 

 and stallions used for breeding, there we find a large pro- 

 portion of even the young horses with faulty eyes. In what- 

 ever country, on the other hand, we find all horses with 

 impaired eyesight rejected for breeding purposes, there we 

 find the number of blind horses steadily decreasing. This 

 depends not alone on the fact that "like produces like," but 

 upon this additional one, that the greater part of the blind- 

 ness in horses depends on a specific disease which is as surely 

 hereditary as gout or rheumatism. This is the too familiar 

 "moon blindness," or recurring inflammation of the eyes. 

 Formerly this was very prevalent in England, but the sys- 



* The Breeder's Gazette, Vol. I, p. 508. 



