Among Horses in India. 61 



kind of paralysis called kamri. These worms find their 

 •way into the horse along with the water he drinks, either 

 fully developed or in the form of ova. Both the parasites 

 and their eggs are abundantly found in the stagnant water 

 of India.' 



This last statement of Professor Williams may be quite 

 correct, but I would be glad to know upon whose authority 

 he makes it. A very experienced helminthologist would be 

 required to determine with absolute certainty that worms and 

 eggs in water are exactly the same as those which resemble 

 them in an animal's body. 



The only worm that I have seen in the eye is the filaria. 

 It always appears in the cool time of the year, and is thought 

 to be most common after a heavy rainy season. The ova are 

 probably taken in with the drinking-water, and they may 

 also be swallowed with the grass when that is cut in swampy 

 land. 



When the worm appears it is about as thick as thread, of 

 a white colour, and from a quarter of an inch, to about one 

 inch long. It swims with great activity in the aqueous 

 humour, and sometimes disappears behind the iris for 

 hours. 



In a day or two the irritation caused by the worm's move- 

 ments brings on inflammation of the eye, with opacity of the 

 cornea, and after a short time the horse usually becomes per- 

 manently blind unless relieved. 



The whiteness of the cornea occasionally comes on so 

 suddenly that it is the first symptom which directs attention 

 to the state of the eye. 



Now and then a case occurs in which the worm dies before 

 the eye is much injured, when it decomposes and is absorbed, 

 the opacity gradually disappearing and the sight being saved. 

 This, however, is so rarely the result that the worm should 

 always be let out by puncturing the cornea as early as 

 possible. The sooner the operation is performed the more 

 likely is the sight to be saved. When properly managed the 

 anterior chamber refills quickly with aqueous humour, the 

 inflammation subsides, and in the great majority of cases no 



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