98 DISEASES OF THE EYE. 



skilful hands, the knife often fails ; or rather, there is a disposition to 

 reproduction in these tumours, which it is impossible to repress. 



The eyelids of the ox are very suhject to disease. Sometimes there 

 is a scaliness around the edges ; sometimes a row of pustules resem- 

 bling the stye of the human being : both of these diseases are fre- 

 quently a great source of annoyance. They appear early in the spring 

 of the year, and continue during the summer and the greater part of 

 the autumn, and disappear as winter comes on. A solution of white 

 vitriol, in the proportion of a drachm to a pint of water, will often be 

 a useful application. If this fails, the nitrated ointment of quicksil- 

 ver may be smeared over the lid, taking care that none of it gets into 

 the eye. It will, however, be necessary at times to prepare for the 

 use of these by washing the part with a goulard lotion for a few days. 



Young oxen are subject to warts, which are frequently sadly teas- 

 ing. They would probably disappear after a while, but, in the mean- 

 time, they are unsightly, and much annoy the animal by getting 

 between or within the lids. They may either be clipped off with a 

 pair of scissors, touching the root afterwards with the lunar caustic, 

 that the wart may not be reproduced ; or — the best way when prac- 

 ticable — they may be removed by tying a ligature of fine strong silk 

 tightly round the pedicle, or root. 



The eye itself is not unfrequently inflamed, and sometimes very 

 acutely. The horse has a little shovel, concealed in the inner corner 

 of the eye, which he is enabled to protrude whenever he pleases over 

 the greater part of the eye, and by aid of the tears to wipe and wash 

 away the dust and gravel which would otherwise lodge in the eye 

 and give him much pain. When the haw is swelled in disease, the 

 ignorant farrier too often cuts it away, not knowing that it is the 

 mere effect of inflammation, and that a little cooling lotion would 

 probably abate that inflammation, and lessen the swelling, and restore 

 the part to its natural size and utility. The ox has something of the 

 same contrivance, but it is not so moveable or so effectual ; and, when 

 he travels over a dusty road in the heat of summer, he sadly suffers 

 from the small particles of dirt and the insects that are continually 

 flying into his eye. This is unobserved by the careless driver, and 

 inflammation is established, and the eye weeps, and becomes dim, 

 and sometimes blindness follows. 



This portion of the eye, or this third eyelid, seems to be peculiarly 

 subject to disease. Little swellings, and ulcers, and fungous grow^ths, 

 appear upon it; and a fungus, like that just described, springs up, 

 and almost covers the eye. This is sometimes in a manner epidemic 

 on various farms. 



But from other causes, and of the nature of which we know little, 

 injlavimation of the eye is produced, and goes and comes as in the 

 horse, time after time, the attack being gradually more severe, and 

 the intervals between the attacks shorter, until, as in the horse, the 

 inflammation extends to the internal part of the eye, and the lens 

 becomes opaque, and cataract ensues, and the ox is incurably blind. 



