EXAMINATION FOR PURCHASE. -275 



until it is placed in the most favourable direction for ob- 

 servation. 



Though every horseman can detect absolute blindness, 

 yet the eye of the horse is susceptible of so many diseases, 

 in which defective vision or partial bUndness exists in such 

 a form, long before the sight is lost, that it requires not 

 only more observation than most people imagine, but a 

 person unacquainted with its anatomical structure, and the 

 different appearances it assumes, cannot perceive it at all 

 Tlxere are certain forms of the eye, and structural pecu 

 liarities, that show a constitutional predisposition to disease 

 — thus, small sleepy eyes, of a blueish grey colour, or 

 wlien they have a flat, retracted, and sunken appearance, 

 oi those of a longish oval figure, are predisposed to opthal- 

 mia, or when the eyes appear full, with a fleshy circle 

 around them, these are all symptoms of badness of eye, 

 and are the forerunners of blindness, particularly in the 

 heads of coarse and fleshy horses, with heavy countenances, 

 who usually go blind with cataracts at seven years old. 



Slight thickenings of the lid or puckering towards tho 

 inner corner of the eye, a difference in size, a cloudiness, 

 or dullness of the iris, are several indications of disease, 

 that a purchaser should beware of. 



In examining the eyes, both must have an equal deg/ee 

 of light ; if any difference is appareiit between them, one 

 must be diseased. The cornea, or transparent part f f the 

 eye, should be perfectly clear. 



Specks are best detected by standing at the shodider ; if 

 one is evident, and it can be clearly proved to be ^lo more 

 than the effect of accident, no importance need be placed 

 on it. But it is impossible to ascertain this, and therefore 

 the safest course is to assume that natural irritability and 

 consequent inflammation of the eye is the cause. 



Specks on the transparent cornea are i^cnerally the re- 

 sult of external injury ; there is seldonx more than one ; 

 when very small and near the circumle^-ence, they are of 

 no consequence ; but if large, or near che centre, they in 

 terfere with distinctness of vision, and make the horse shy 

 If opaque or mdky lines are traced on its surface, it be 

 speaks the remains of former inflammation. 



But it is necessary to observe that horses, before they 

 are six years old, have not that transpTroncy in their eyes 

 vvhich they dis])lay afterwards, because, \vliile young and 



