INFLAMMATION OF THE EYE. 45 



defiance to these applications, the owner immediately 

 pursues another method. 



In the treatment of a lingering attack of specific 

 ophthalmia it is of the utmost importance to consider 

 the condition of the animal ; for the disease being of 

 a constitutional nature, general rather than local mea- 

 sures are to be adopted. Should the horse be poor 

 and exhausted it must be supported, and nothing 

 ought to be given calculated to increase the debility. 

 The digestion must be regulated by mashes and 

 clysters without any laxative. Soft and nourishing 

 food, with pure air, and a loose box somewhat dark- 

 ened, are required. To the eye a camel's-hair pencil 

 dipped in hydrocyanic or prussic acid diluted with 

 twice its bulk of water may be applied thrice a day ; 

 and a ball containing a drachm of powdered colchicum 

 and half a scruple of calomel may be administered 

 night and morning. Tonics even may, in extreme 

 cases, be freely given, notwithstanding the presence 

 of apparent inflammation : they are in these trouble- 

 some cases often the most powerful and only active 

 opponents to the disease. Gentle measures, there- 

 fore, are required when the state of the animal appeals 

 to our forbearance ; but if the horse is in high work- 

 ing condition, irritable and strong, mild means are not 

 to be depended upon. The degree to which severe 

 remedies are called for, the judgment must decide; 

 but, in an aggravated case, the following is the 

 plan of treatment commonly pursued by most prac- 

 titioners : — 



" He administers a dose of physic ; not because he 

 often sees any immediate good effect from it, but 



