408 RESEARCHES INTO THE CAUSES OF BLINDNESS. 
but we prefer stating our observations without any comment, and 
leaving it to our colleagues to judge whether or not we are right in 
considering that this chiefly arises from that morbid humour re- 
maining in the system which is thrown off by the discharge in 
strangles. Should we be in error, we shall not consider either time 
or labour lost if, in the course of an impartial discussion, some 
gleams of truth can be elicited which may prove of service to sci- 
ence, and to the noble animal we are anxious to benefit. 
Our readers must not, however, conclude from the foregoing re- 
marks, that we consider strangles to be the sole cause of blindness. 
There is another, and a very potent one, namely, the emanations 
that arise from the edges of ponds, or from the beds of shallow 
streams that flow through damp grounds. When thus speaking of 
the purulent ophthalmia that prevails in regiments, we shall be 
able to prove, beyond a doubt, that it has been occasioned by 
marshy exhalations. 
From a survey of the considerations developed in the course of 
this work, the predisposing causes of blindness and numerous 
other affections will be found to be — 
1st. All the evils and ill treatment attending the breeding, rear- 
ing, and education of the horses. 
2d. The neglect, brutality, and over- work from which they suffer. 
3d. The insufficiency and bad quality of their food. 
4th. And, lastly, the cross-breeding of the inferior animals in 
consequence of continually changing the station. 
The determinant causes may be said to be — 
1st. Adynamic strangles, and that general atony of all the tis- 
sues which opposes itself to the expulsion of morbid products, and 
which usually comes on when the foal reaches its maturity. 
2d. The deleterious miasmata exhaled from damp and marshy 
lands during wet and warm weather. 
CHAPTER III. 
Our task would be very imperfectly performed if, after having 
pointed out the evil, we were to pause without also stating some 
mode of remedying it. Still adhering to the order adopted in our 
enumeration of the causes, we shall commence by laying down 
some principles, an adherence to which is indispensable to those 
who wish to obtain a good breed of horses. 
With respect to amelioration, we are not among the number 
of those who consider that nothing can be effected unless by pure 
English or Arabian blood. Without at all denying the regenera- 
tive power of these noble breeds, we are of opinion that much may 
be effected by a judicious use of our indigenous bloods. Those 
