HORSE-DISTEMPER. — OPHTHALMIA. 
Oct. 
those within the influence of the maritime air, receive theirs in the 
opposite season of the year. In the former, the showers are pro- 
duced by thunder-clouds only, and are very irregular and uncertain 
as to their season ; sometimes falling very early, and at other times 
continuing unusually late. August and September are considered 
as the best months in which the journey from Klaarvvater to the 
Cape, can be performed ; as, at that time, the weather is cool, and 
the oxen can arrive there while the grass of the colony is fresh and 
green. 
After the middle of October, no frost is expected for seven 
months ; but in the mornings of May it is always found to return, 
and is the signal for the return of their horses from the Roggeveld, 
whither they are sent in January to avoid the Paarde-ziekte, a fatal 
distemper to which they are liable during the hotter months. 
Those who object to sending their horses to so great a distance 
from the settlement, are content to run the risk of keeping them on 
the Langberg (Long Mountain), an elevated mountainous country, 
lying in a W.N.W. direction, distant about fifty miles. This, how- 
ever, not being so cold as the Roggeveld, is less safely to be de- 
pended on. It does not seem that this distemper acquires its full 
Ibrce till the beginning of February ; but after then, the lower 
districts of the whole of the extra-tropical part of Southern Africa 
are, as far as my information enables me to speak, subject to its 
baneful effects. Experience has shown that the first frost, whenever 
it happens, fortunately puts a stop to its further ravages. 
A mild kind of ojyhthahnia is a complaint prevalent amongst the 
Hottentots in this part of the country. It returns at two opposite 
seasons of the year ; most frequently in November and May, but 
sometimes in the three following months. I have termed it mild, be- 
cause I never heard of its having ended in blindness ; although it is 
said to be very painful and troublesome. I performed many speedy 
and effectual cures by the distribution of small quantities of an eye- 
water made with a very weak solution of sugar of lead* in plain 
Acetas jplumbi. 
