DISEASES, DEFECTS, ETC. 67 



vices were proved to have appeared in a horse on trial, 

 three or four days after purchase, this was held to be 

 evidence that they existed at the time of purchase {w). 



Biting when dangerous is a vice. Biting. 



The crystalline lens is generally the seat of disease in Bliudness. 

 the eye of a horse ; it is so called from its resemblance to 

 a piece of crystal or transparent glass, and on it all the 

 important uses of the eye mainly depend. It is of a thick 

 jelly-like consistence, convex on each side, but there is more 

 convexity on the inner than on the outer side. It is in- 

 closed in a delicate transparent bag or capsule, and is placed 

 between the aqueous and the vitreous humours, and received 

 within a hollow in the latter, with which it exactly corre- 

 sponds. It has, from its density and its double convexity, 

 the chief concern in conveying the rays of light which pass 

 into the pupil. The lens is very apt to he affected from 

 long or violent inflammation of the conjunctiva, and either 

 its capsule becomes cloudy, and imperfectly transmits the 

 light, or the substance of the lens becomes opaque {x) . 



The confirmed cataract, or the opaque lens of long stand- Cataract. 

 ing, will exhibit a pearly appearance, which cannot be mis- 

 taken, and will frequently be attended with a change of 

 form, a portion of the lens being forced forward into the 

 pupil. Although the disease may not have proceeded so 

 far as this, yet if there be the slightest cloudiness of the 

 lens either generally, or in the form of a minute spot in the 

 centre, and with or without lines radiating from that spot, 

 the horse is to be condemned ; for in ninety-nine cases out 

 of a hundred the disease will proceed, and cataract, or com- 

 plete opacity of the lens and absolute blindness will be the 

 result («). Cataract is an unsoundness (y). 



That inflammation of the eye of the horse, which usually Remittent in- 

 terminates in blindness of one or both eyes, has the peculiar Aammation. 

 character of remitting or disappearing for a time, once or 

 twice, or thrice, before it fully runs its course. The eye, 

 after an attack of inflammation, regains so nearly its former 

 natural brilliancy, that a man well acquainted with horses 

 wiU not always recognize the traces of former disease. 

 After a time, however, the inflammation returns, and the 

 result is uoavoidable (s). 



Blindness is undoubtedly an unsoundness ; but to consti- Opacity ot the 



{w) Finley v. Quirk, 9 Mian. 194. 1850. 



(:t;) Lib. U.K. "The Horse," 94. («) Lib. U. K. "The Horse," 



(y) Siggs v. Thrale, before Chief 363. 

 Baron PoUock, Guildhall, Feb. 18, 



F 2 



