8(j THE HORSE. 



that his horse should be as trim and neat all over as art can make him, 

 the very eye-lashes are generally sacrificed. What has the poor animal 

 suffered, when, travelling in the noon of day, the full blaze of the sun has 

 fallen upon his eyes ; and how many accidents have probably happened, 

 from his being dazzled by the light, but which have been attributed to 

 other causes. 



If the horse has no eyebrow, there are several hairs or brisdes scattered 

 on the upper eyelid, and there is a projecting fold of the lid which dis- 

 charges nearly the same office. It is more conspicuous in old horses than 

 in young ones. Some horsemen do not hke to see it, and associate the 

 idea of it with weakness or disease of the eye. This is perfectly erroneous. 

 It is a provision of nature to accomplish a certain purpose, and has nothing 

 to do either with health or disease. 



On the lower lid is a useful provision to warn the horse of the near ap- 

 proach of any object that might incommode or injure him, in the form of 

 long projecting hairs or bristles, and which are plenteously embued with 

 nervous influence, so that the slightest touch shall put the animal on his 

 guard. We would request any of our readers, by whom the experiment 

 never has been made, to touch very slightly the extremity of one of these 

 hairs. They will be surprised to observe the sudden convulsive twitching 

 of the lid, rendering the attack of the insect absolutely impossible. Those 

 ignorant grooms, however, who cut away the eye-lashes, do not spare these 

 useful feelers. 



The eye is exposed to the action of the atmospheric air, and the 

 process of evaporation, destructive of its transparency, is continually going 

 on. The eye of the horse, or the visible part of the eye, is, likewise, more 

 prominent and larger than in the human being, and the animal is often 

 subject to extreme annoyance from dust and insects, while he has no hands 

 or other guard to defend himself from the torture which they occasion. 

 What is the provision of nature against this ? Under the lid, and a little 

 within the outer corner of the upper lid, is a large irregular body, the lacry- 

 mal gland, comparatively larger than in the human being, secreting an 

 aqueous fluid, and which fluid slowly issuing out from the gland, and, 

 more especially, pressed out of it by the act of winking, flows over the 

 eye, supplies it with moisture, and washes off all impurities. Human 

 ingenuity could not have selected a situation from which the fluid could be 

 conveyed over the eye with more advantage for this purpose. 



When this fluid is secreted in an undue quantity, and flows over the eye, 

 it is called tears. An increased flow of tears is produced by any thing that 

 irritates the eye, and, therefore, a constant accompaniment and symptom 

 of inflammation. A horse with any degree of weeping, or the flowing 

 of the tears down the cheek, should be regarded with much suspicion. 

 In the human being an unusual secretion of tears is often caused by 

 bodily pain, and emotions of the mind ; and so it is occasionally in the 

 horse. We have seen it repeatedly, under acute pain or brutal usage. 

 John Lawrence, speaking of the cruelty exercised (and we know still too 

 often exercised) by some dealers in what they call " firing" a horse before 

 he is led out for sale, in order to arouse every spark of mettle, says, " more 

 than fifty years have passed away, and I have before my eyes a poor mare 

 stone blind, exquisitely shaped, and showing all the marks of high blood, 

 whom I saw unmercifully cut with the whip a quarter of an hour before 

 the sale, to bring her to the use of her stiffened limbs, while the tears were 

 trickling down her cheeks" 



Having passed over the eye, the fluid is conveyed by the little canal of 



