VETERINARY JURISPRUDENCE. 
631 
horse in question might have been perfectly sound, and yet at 
the several dates mentioned by previous witnesses might have the 
symptoms described. Cataract commenced with ophthalmia, but 
was concealed by the opacity of the anterior portion of the eye, 
so that until the ophthalmia had more or less subsided the cataract 
would not be perceived. Percivall was a writer of authority on 
the subject. He agreed with him that cataract was sometimes 
formed in a short time. This might have been so in the present 
instance. His experience was that cataract had been formed within 
as little as ten days. If there had been any disease on the 19th of 
December, leading to such an extensive cataract as was described 
existing on the 18th February, it must have been discovered at the 
first date on examination by a veterinary surgeon. The fact that it 
was not then seen induced him to believe that it did not then exist. 
As regards spavins there was nothing concerning which veterinary 
surgeons differed so much. 
Cross-examined. — He was in practice in Edinburgh. He was not 
sent there by the Veterinary Protection Society. True cataract was 
the result of periodical ophthalmia in 95 cases out of 100. He 
agreed with Mr. Youatt that, generally speaking, it was the lighter 
attacks of cataract that proved so rapid. A blow upon a horse’s 
head might produce dislocation of the crystalline lens, and produce 
cataract. 
Re-examined. — Horses were often restive and struck their heads 
in travelling by railway. In his own experience at the College, 
three or four years ago, he had a case of a large cataract being 
formed within ten days. He knew nothing of the defendant. He 
was once engaged in a case against him. 
Benjamin Cartledge , Sheffield, President of the Royal College of 
Veterinary Surgeons, and a member of the Court of Examiners, 
said he agreed generally with the evidence of the last witness. A 
horse perfectly sound on the 19th December might have specific oph- 
thalmia on the 27th; it often came on very suddenly. Cataract formed 
while ophthalmia existed, but the cloudiness of the eye prevented 
its being seen. If the disease described as existing on the 27th of 
December had existed on the 19th, it must have been visible to an 
ordinary observer. 
Cross-examined. — Cataract could not have been produced without 
external violence in the eight days. 
By his Lordship. — There is no other name for cataract. “ Con- 
stitutional disease of the eye” he understood to mean specific 
ophthalmia. 
Edward Coleman Dray, veterinary surgeon for upwards of forty 
years at Leeds, said he concurred in the evidence of the two 
preceding witnesses. 
Mr. Dowell summed up his evidence, and commented on the 
non-calling of Mr. Topham, who could have given them every 
particular concerning the horse. 
Dr. Hill said it was the defendant who should have called Mr. 
Topham, or somebody about his stables, to tell the jury that the 
