384 THE HORSE. 



treatment should be a copious bleeding from the jugular vein, fol- 

 lowed by a ball, such as — 



Take of Common Physic Ball 2 drachms. 



Tartar Emetic 1 drachm. 



Mix and give every six hours. 



This not only acts on the intestines, but it keeps up a constant 

 nausea, and so tends to lower the action of the heart. The eye 

 should be bathed with warm water frequently; and, if the mischief 

 be severe, a seton should at once be put into the skin covering the 

 upper jaw, about two inches below the eye. On the next day, if 

 " the white" still looks red, the bleeding must be repeated ; and, 

 if the bowels are much moved, the tartar emetic may be continued 

 without the aloes, while if they are obstinate, the dose of the lat- 

 ter may be increased. "When the acute symptoms have somewhat 

 diminished, a camel's-hair brush may be dipped in wine of opium, 

 and the eye gently touched with it daily, which will generally com- 

 plete the cure. The diet must be low, corn being forbidden en- 

 tirely, and the stable should be kept very cool and airy.* 



Purulent ophthalmia is confined to the conjunctiva, and it 

 may be recognised by the profuse discharge of purulent fluid 

 which takes place. The eyelids are much swollen, and the white 

 of the eye is covered with a puffy rod membrane, which rises up 

 above the level of the cornea-, sometimes in fungoid excrescences. 

 This form of inflammation is generally epidemic, and sometimes 

 runs through a stable without a single exception. The treatment 

 should be, at first, similar to that recommended for simple inflam- 

 mation ; but when it reaches the chronic stage, a more powerful 

 stimulus is required to restore the vessels to a healthy condition. 

 A wash composed as follows, must therefore be applied : — 



Take of Nitrate of Silver 6 grs. 



Distilled Water 1 oz. 



Mix, and drop a little into the eye from a quill daily. 



Iritis, or inflammation of the iris, generally known as specific 

 ophthalmia, is the most formidable of all the diseases to which the 

 eye is subject, and, if not checked, rapidly disorganizes it; while 

 it also, even when running an unusually favorable course, is very 

 apt to produce opacity of the lens or its capsule (cataract). This 

 pest of the stable is, undoubtedly, often brought on by over stimu- 

 lation, first of the whole body, through the food, and secondly, of 

 the eyes themselves, through the foul emanations from the accu- 



* The treatment recommended in the text is certainly, to say the least, 

 injudicious, heroic, and unsound. Apply cold water cloths to trie eye for a 

 day or two, then use, rain-water 4 ounces, nitrate of silver 12 grains, and 

 apply twice daily with camel's hair pencil or brush. Allow green or soft 

 feed. — Editor. 



