88 GUTTA SERENA. 
dressed twice each day, and the process ending by brushing the quarters 
thoroughly with a new birch broom. The bed should be ample; the 
box should be padded and a warm cloth always kept over the loins. A 
piece of wet flannel, covered with a rug, placed over the lumbar region, 
has on occasions induced a return of warmth. The bowels should be 
regulated, if possible, with mashes and green meat; but, when costive- 
ness exists, a pint of oil is to be preferred to even three drachms of aloes. 
The one exhausts, the other nurtures as well as relaxes the body. 
The hope of amendment must, however, be indulged with caution. 
The disease is of chronic growth, and therefore will be of long duration. 
At all events, it is not one horse in four which recovers from an attack 
of partial paralysis; and not one in twenty that is afterward fit for its 
former uses. 
GUTTA SERENA. 
Gutta serena is fixed dilatation of the pupillary opening, owing to 
paralysis of the optic nerve; the affection is, consequently, accompanied 
by permanent blindness. 
The causes of this malady are blows upon the head, quick driving, 
excessive hemorrhage, stomach staggers, unwholesome stables, poor 
food, exhausting labor, or anything which may decidedly undermine 
the constitution. 
The majority of these causes are inflicted by man, the remainder are 
within his control. Any person has but to reflect how very precious 
eyesight is to mankind. Having settled that point, he has only to con- 
jecture how much more dear it must be to a creature forbid to enjoy the 
pleasures of conversation. To take away sight, is to deprive the animal 
of a faculty with which it is endowed to perfection, in some measure to 
compensate for the absence of reason and the deficiency of speech. <A 
horse can see farther than its master. The human eye is, frequently, 
dormant, when the thought is active: the healthy, equine eye never 
rests. The creature sleeps so lightly that very seldom is it caught 
napping. We may imagine, therefore, the gratification bestowed by an 
organ so constantly employed. To blind a horse, is to deprive a 
breathing body of half its life’s pleasure. It is more, when we consider 
the natural disposition of the quadruped: it is to deprive timidity of its 
watchfulness, fear of its protection. It is even yet more, when we think 
upon the habits of the horse—its spirits, its pleasure, its joy—all are 
expressed by means of a gallop. But what speed can the hofse indulge 
in, when cruelty has taken away the power to guide with rapidity? To 
destroy the horse’s sight, is to condemn a creature to live on, but to 
take from life the gayety of existence. 
