88 THE HORSE. 



Dust,~"or gravel, or insects, shall have entered the eye, and annoy the 

 horse. This pecuhar muscle suddenly acts. The eye is forcibly drawn 

 back, and presses upon the fatty matter. That may be displaced, but can- 

 not be squeezed into less compass. It is forced violently towards the inner 

 corner of the eye, and it drives before it the haw ; and the haw having 

 likewise some fat about the point of it, and being placed between the eye 

 and an exceedingly smooth and polished bone, and, being pressed upon 

 by the eye as it is violently drawn back, shoots out with the rapidity of 

 lightning, and, guided by the eyelids, projects over the eye, and thus car- 

 ries off the offending matter. 



In what w^ay shall we draw the haw back again without muscular action? 

 Another principle is called into play, of which we have already spoken, 

 and of which we shall have much to say, elasticity. It is that principle 

 by which a body yields to a certain force impressed upon it, and returns to 

 its former state as soon as that force is removed. It is that by which the 

 ligament of the neck (p. 68), while it supports the head, enables the horse 

 to graze, — by which the heart expands after closing on and propelling for- 

 ward the blood in its ventricles, — by which the artery contracts on the blood 

 that has distended it, and by which many of the most important functions 

 of life are influenced or governed. This muscle ceases to act. The eye 

 resumes its natural situation in the orbit. There is room for the fatty 

 matter to return to its place, and it immediately returns by the elasticity of 

 the membrane by which it is covered ; and it draws after it this cartilage 

 with which it is connected, and the return is as rapid as the projection. 



The old farriers strangely misunderstood the nature and design of the 

 haw, and many of the present day do not seem to be much better informed. 

 When from sympathy with other parts of the eye labouring under inflam- 

 mation, and becoming itself inflamed, and increased in bulk, and the neigh- 

 bouring parts likewise thickened, it was either forced out of its place, or 

 voluntarily protruded to defend the eye from the action of light, and could 

 not return, they mistook it for some injurious excrescence or tumour, and 

 proceeded to cut it out. The " haw in the eyes," is a disease well known 

 to the majority of grooms, and this sad remedy for it is deemed the only 

 cure. It is a barbarous practice, and if they were compelled to w alk half 

 a dozen miles in a thick dust, and without being permitted to wipe or to 

 cleanse the eye, they would feel the torture to which they doom this noble 

 animal, when afterwards employed in their service. A little patience having 

 been exercised, and a few cooling applications made to the eye while the 

 inflammation lasted, and, afterwards, some mild astringent ones, and other 

 proper means employed, the tumour would have disappeared, the haw 

 would have returned to its place, and the animal would have discharged 

 the duties reciuired of him, without inconvenience to himself, instead of 

 the agony to which an unguarded and luiprotected eye must frequently 

 expose him. 



The loss of blood occasioned by the cutting out of the haw may fre- 

 quently relieve the inflammation of the eye ; and the evident amendment 

 which follows, induces these wise men to believe that they have performed 

 an excellent operation ; but the same loss of blood, by scarification of the 

 overloaded vessels of the conjunctiva, would be equally beneficial, and the 

 animal would not be deprived of an instrument of admirable use to him. 



Tlie eye is of a globular figure, yet not a perfect globe. It is rather 

 composed of parts of two globes. The half of the one, /, smaller and 

 transparent in front, and of the other, p, larger, and the coat of it opaque, 

 behind. We shall most conveniently begin with the coats of the eye. 



