56 DADD’S VETERINARY MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 
lids rust, however, be previously cleansed with lukewarm water 
The patient should have a few doses of fluid extract of poke-root, 
About half an ounce of the extract, night and morning, will suffice, 
which will act as an alterative. 
SPEcIFIC OPHTHALMIA. 
This form of disease affects animals periodically, and is depend- 
ent on some peculiar predisposition; hence it may be termed 
hereditary. 
Symptoms.—There usually comes on very suddenly, perhaps in 
a single night, a great tenderness in one eye, commonly marked by 
the eyelids being shut, a copious secretion of tears, the white of the 
eye appearing slightly red, and the whole anterior chamher of the 
eye dim and clouded, there being no distinct speck on the corne, 
as takes place in the common inflammation of the eye. The red- 
ness of the eyeball is never very remarkable, even though the 
disease assumes its most aggravated form; but the dimness of tle 
anterior chamber increases rapidly, and in two or three days, ar 
even a shorter period, a yellow spot appears at the bottom of that 
cavity, arising from the formation of pus. Sometimes the quantity 
of pus is very considerable, and I have seen it fill at least twie 
thirds of the anterior chamber. After lasting one, two, or thre 
weeks, the inflammation and watering usually begin gradually to 
subside. The pus, though in very large quantity, is sometimes 
almost entirely absorbed, so that scarcely any vestige is to be seen; 
and in other instances thin webs of opaque matter remain, which 
destroy the transparency and luster of the eye, and which, by their 
adhesion to the edges of the pupil, interfere with its motions and 
destroy its form. 
It is astonishing how acute dealers in horses are in discovering 
an eye which has had an attack of this kind. 
Sooner or later, while the horse appears in a state of perfect 
health, the eye is again attacked, the disease being accompanied by 
the same symptoms, making a similar progress, and having the 
same termination, while each new attack is accompanied with the 
deposition of more and more opaque matter. These attacks suc- 
ezed each other at very different, and sometimes at very distant, 
iatervals, until the whole pupil is filled with an opaque white 
matter, and the sight of the eye completely destroved. 
