276 THE iiokse-keeper's guide. 



{Ti-owiiig, tlie vesselsof the eye are full; therefore, befo7'€) 

 that age, il is not the briUiancy of the cfe that denotes its 

 goo(hiess. 



If there is an excess of tears, it denotes debility, and 

 should occasion a more than ordinary scrutiny ; in fact, all 

 horses with weeping, dull, cloudy eyes, should be rejected 

 as nnsound. 



It may be remarked, as a general rule, that all disease of 

 the eye are incurable. Have nothing' to do with a horse 

 when the slightest trace of disease of the eye is visible. As it 

 is impossible, from a superficial examination, to distinguish 

 between simple optlialmia and inflammation of the con- 

 junctiva, the cause of which has been a blow, or the intro- 

 ductij;n of some irritating matter, such as a piece of dirt (»r 

 hay-seed, which is curable by simple means, and the spe- 

 cific optlialmia, a spontaneous affection, which ultimately 

 terminates in cataract and blindness. 



Viewed in front, the depths of the eye should be looked 

 into; then sideways; which will assist in ascertaining the 

 clearness and absence of specks on or within its surface. 



Floating in the aqueous humour (which preserves the con- 

 vexity of the cornea) is the iris, a muscular membrane, 

 whose dilatation and contraction forms an oval aperture, 

 termed the pupil, which varies in size according to the 

 quantity of light which falls upon the eye. 



The iris varies very little in colour in the horse, though it 

 boars some analofjv to the colour of the skin. It is rarely 

 lighter than a hazel, or darker than a brown ; except m 

 milk white, cream-coloured, or pied horses, when it is 

 white, and they are termed wall-eyed. If it is of a pale 

 variegated cinnamon colour, it is good. 



The pupil or aperture of the iris, is that horizontal ob- 

 long blueish opening, which admits the light to the posterior 

 chambers of the eye. It is important that the oval shape 

 of the pupil is perfect, for if any irregularity or unevenness 

 is perceived, it is a symptom that the organ has received 

 paitial injury. In looking into the depths of the eye, 

 through the pupil, in a strong light, it should exhibit a 

 lively blueishness ; in a moderate light, it should be per- 

 fectly transparent ; if milky or turbid, it is the remains of 

 former inflammation, which will probably recur. 



In bringing the horse out of the stable to the light, if 

 tlie pupil ib large, it is a bad sign ; by alternately shading 



