SPECIFIC OPHTHALMIA. 51 
obesity is always accompanied with debility. But if the horse be a 
hunter or a racer, in training condition, still give the medicine pre- 
scribed, with soft food, not quite so stimulating, and the ball twice daily. 
However, as soon as the medicine begins to take effect, which it will do 
soonest upon the weakly, change it for :— 
Liquor arsenicalis . . . . . . . . Three ounces. 
Muriated tincture of iron . . . . . Five ounces. 
Mix, and give half an ounce in a tumbler of water twice daily. 
Do not bother about the bowels; endeavor to regulate them by mashes 
and with green meat; if they should not respond, do not resort to more 
active measures. Should the pulse be increased, a scruple of tincture 
of aconite root may be administered every hour, in a wineglass of water; 
should the pain appear to be excessive, the like amount of extract of 
belladonna may be rubbed down in a similar quantity of water, and be 
given at the periods already stated; only always be content with doing 
one thing at a time. Thus reduce the pulse, for, with the lowering of 
the vascular action, the agony may become less intense;-however, so 
long as the beats of the artery are not more in a minute than sixty-five, 
and not very thin or hard, the aconite should be withheld, for during an 
acutely painful disorder the heart must be in some degree excited. 
The grand measure, however, remains to be told. Remove every horse 
from the stable in which the attack occurred; then elevate the roof, 
widen the gangway, and enlarge the stalls; improve the ventilation, 
overlook the drains, lay down new pavement—in fact, reconstruct the 
edifice. It is felt that, in giving these directions, a proposal is offered 
to demolish a building. The author is fully alive to the expense of such 
a transaction; but one valuable horse will pay for a great deal of bricks 
and mortar. Experience has decided that the most humane way is, in 
the long run, the cheapest method of proceeding. Ophthalmia is a 
teasing and a vexatious disorder. If the owner has no feeling with the 
inhabitants of his homestead, still let him study his own comfort, for it 
is astonishing how very much good stabling adds to the appearance and 
to the happiness of a mansion. 
Specific ophthalmia does not terminate in death; it usually leaves the 
victim blind in one or both eyes. In England, however, it is mostly 
satisfied with the destruction of one organ; the strength of the other 
becoming, after its departure, considerably improved. At the same 
time, having caused the lids to swell, it leaves them in a wrinkled or a 
puckered state; the remaining eye is likewise somewhat sensitive to 
light. To gain in some measure the shadow of the brow, and to escape 
the full glare of day, the eye is retracted; all the muscles are employed 
