RESEARCHES INTO THE CAUSES OF BLINDNESS. 339 
stimulated us to this work, but a sincere love of science, and a 
desire to assist in benefiting an animal so valuable in commerce, 
agriculture, and war. 
" At first sight it may appear strange, that an army veterinary 
surgeon should have directed his attention to a subject of this kind, 
as, from the frequent removals his duties cause him to make, he 
would not appear to possess those facilities for studying, carefully 
and fundamentally, the causes that modify organization, and 
generally arise from some peculiarity of climate, or soil, or culti- 
vation, or from the manner in which the animal is fed or has been 
reared. 
In order to enlighten our readers on this point, it will be neces- 
sary to explain the motives that induced us to undertake this 
work. 
From the commencement of 1840, to April 1842, the regiment 
to which we were attached occupied the garrison of Sarreguemines, 
the head-quarters of the frontier arondissement in the department 
of the Moselle. During that period, we had frequent opportuni- 
ties of noticing that many of the horses were blind in either one or 
both eyes. We were subsequently sent to St. Avoid, a town 
situated on the road from Metz to Mayence, where our observations 
became more numerous, especially when we turned our attention 
to the horses employed in loading coals from the Prussian coal-pits. 
This induced us to resolve that we would investigate the causes 
which could so modify the economy, as to render horses liable to 
go blind at any age. M. Carret, the veterinary surgeon at St. 
Avoid, obligingly furnished us with many data bearing on the 
mode of breeding, rearing, and training animals in this district ; but 
we must publicly testify that we are chiefly indebted to M. Alt- 
mayer, a distinguished agriculturist, and a man no less celebrated 
for his talent than for his modesty. 
In order to make our treatise as practical as possible, we shall 
not deviate from the line that we pursued in the course of our 
investigations. Considered in a medical point of view, it is not, 
perhaps, the most logical, but, as regarding hygiene, it appears to us 
to be most preferable. 
We shall divide this work into three parts. 
In the first we shall treat of the characteristic appearances 
observed in the eyes of a blind horse, the morbid lesions presented 
on dissection, and the various aspects assumed by the affections 
that terminate in blindness. 
In the second we shall devote ourselves to the important task 
of considering the causes that produce them. 
And in the third we shall give an account of a purulent 
ophthalmia which attacked upwards of thirty horses in our regi- 
ment. 
