SIMPLE OPHTHALMIA. 43 
it is careless about the welfare of others, and he is very fortunate who 
possesses such a servant and escapes without accident. ; 
There is no cure for a disposition depending upon a change of struc- 
ture; but there may be a preventive. Would all horse-owners preserve 
their tempers and forbear from slashing a horse over the head, they 
would be vast gainers in a pecuniary sense, and would certainly escape 
very many of those ills now commonly attendant upon equestrian exer- 
cises. 
Whoever has a shying horse had better discard the creature from all 
private uses. Send the animal to some work in which the habit will be 
accompanied with less danger, or never allow the quadruped to quit the 
stable without having the sight securely blinded. Such things are 
necessary ; but the feeling man, when he considers how much the exer- 
cise of the senses sweeten mere animal existence, will sigh over the order 
which compels him to deprive a horse of that which the common sense 
of the English has denominated “ precious sight.” 
Simple ophthalmia is inflammation of the fine membrane which covers 
the horse’s eye; it reaches no deeper, it does not affect the internal 
structures of the organ, and it is not so much to be dreaded in its 
immediate as in its after consequences. It is caused by accident and 
by the violence of man. 
As the reader has walked the streets, he surely must have seen men 
indulge their temper by cutting a horse over the head with the whip. 
The animal capers about and shakes the ears, endeavoring to avoid the 
chastisement; the man becomes more enraged; the reins are pulled 
tight, while the master stands up in the gig, and for minutes continues 
chastising a creature that is bound to the shafts and comparatively at 
his mercy. Were the horse, thus tortured, to run away, the person 
who abused his authority would have provoked a severe retribution; 
but the animal has no such intention. The fault may be far more 
imaginary than real. The timidity of the horse prevents it from will- 
fully inviting the dreaded lash; possibly the offense resides more with 
the individual invested with trust over life than with the creature that 
patiently submits to most unworthy control. At all events, the thong 
curls about the face; now it cuts the lips, in which the sense of touch 
resides; the pain is maddening, the horse capers and shakes its head, 
striving to avoid a repetition of the torture. The next slash, however, 
turns sharply round the blinkers and lights upon the eye; the horse is 
held tight, the man feels happy, he has discovered a tender place; the 
whip is plied again and again, always falling true. It hits the mark. 
When the animal reaches home, the lid of one eye is closed, and many 
tears have wetted the cheek, while scars remain after the immediate 
