556 EYES, HOW AFFECTED. [BOOK IV. 



soles, and to ascertain whether the horse has not 

 been pegged between the shoe and the sole, or his 

 " heels opened" by the shoeing smith for the pur- 

 pose of sale. See Index for lameness. 



EYE-SIGHT. 



Acute pain affects the eye by contracting it. Thus 

 founder, corn, &c. occasions one eye to be less than 

 the other ; and the sympathy that exists between 

 the stomach and the eyes, has the same effect on 

 both when the organs of digestion suffer pain. 

 Small eyes, however, is more frequently an original 

 hereditary defect, and are objectionable, inasmuch 

 as the horse requires to see before him without 

 turning his head, which he cannot do unless the 

 eye-ball fill the socket ; to say nothing of the known 

 predisposition of such eyes to contract disease. 



They of the stable term this " buckee," or buck- 

 eyed, though with a very poor taste for natural 

 history ; the buck's eye, whether of deer or coney, 

 being large. Very large eyes are equally unde- 

 sirable ; for such horses see too much, are apt to 

 shy, and are also more liable to contract disorders 

 than those of a middling size. A handsome eye is 

 strong, well placed in its socket, not projecting be- 

 yond the eye-lids ; the cornea should be transparent, 

 and show distinctly the various humours of which 

 it is composed. 



No animal is so subject to blindness as the horse. 

 This arises from the great heat of his blood, and 



