13* THE PUPIL OF THE EYE 



there may be being concentrated on this yellow 

 ' carpet,' and everyone must have at some time re- 

 marked the yellow glare which is present in the eyes 

 of the ordinary domestic cat. In the dog and the 

 wolf the colour is, at night, gray. In the badger it is 

 white ; whilst in the ferret, which has to work in the 

 darkness of the rabbit-burrows, etc.. it is colourless. 



The aperture in the iris is called the pupil, and 

 through it light passes to the inner chamber of the 

 €ye. The pupil is oblong, and varies in size in 

 accordance with the intensity or amount of light which 

 falls in the eye. In a darkened stable the pupil 

 expands by reason of the diminished light, but as soon 

 as the horse is brought into the doorway contracts, 

 in order to exclude any more light than the eye can 

 bear. If it were brought exactly opposite to the sun, 

 the contraction would be proportionate, and it would 

 become very markedly reduced in size. 



The eye of a horse should be full and large, but not 

 over-prominent, and the eyelid fine and thin. Where 

 the eye is unduly small and deeply sunken, the corners 

 of the lids being puckered up, it may be safely assumed 

 that it is either diseased or has been recently subject 

 to severe inflammation. Such a conclusion may also 

 be formed if one eye is smaller than the other, the 

 smaller one being that which is diseased or has been 

 recently inflamed. 



The eye is a very true indicator of a horse's temper. 

 In nine cases out of ten, where an undue amount of 

 the white is shown, it may be concluded that the 

 horse is a vicious-tempered animal, for while it but 

 rarely happens that the cornea of the eye is unnaturally 

 small, yet, if an unusual amount of the white is visible 



