410 RESEARCHES INTO THE CAUSES OF BLINDNESS. 
usually made use ot‘ in the business of reproduction. The frame is 
bony and well made, the muscular system energetic, the figure fine 
and light for its size and make, the articulations large, the limbs 
regular, the feet good, the head small and expressive, the eyes such 
as rarely become blind ; in short, with care, this stallion would 
effect an entire change in the horses of the district. 
In order, however, completely to attain their end, the breeders 
must not on any account make use of the male offspring in the 
business of reproduction until they exhibit the distinctive charac- 
ters of the breed. We have again and again remarked that blind- 
ness chiefly attacks half-bred horses in all districts. No sooner do 
they lose the distinctive characteristics of their breeds than they 
become more or less subject to this fatal complaint, while the cart 
or draught horses of Auvergne, Limousin, or Navarre, that have 
preserved their primitive stamp, seldom or never suffer from it. 
If our opinion on this point be well founded, as we have every 
reason to believe that it is, it may easily be conceived how neces- 
sary it is that breeders should be most particular as to the stallion 
they make use of. 
The choice of the stallion, that most fundamental and most im- 
portant point in breeding horses, being made, there are other indis- 
pensable precautions which must be taken if we would ensure the 
success of the work thus commenced. 
1st. To moderate the work allotted to the breeding mares for 
some time before they give birth to the foal, and to increase their 
rations of fodder, and to let it be good. 
2d. To feed the foal as well as the mother well during the period 
of suckling. It is only by good and proper feeding that useful 
healthy animals can be reared. 
3d. Not to work the foals too soon, or to over-task their un- 
formed powers, as it is this which destroys the shape and symmetry 
of their limbs, and renders the bony and muscular systems weak 
and imperfect. Nor are these the only ill effects resulting from 
the young horses being precociously worked : the principal causes 
of blindness are determined and developed by the influence of this 
abuse. 
We have had this opinion confirmed by the observations of se- 
veral agriculturists, and latterly by numerous cases that had come 
under the notice of the chief veterinary surgeon of the light horse 
at Deux Ponts (Bavaria.) He told us that, in order to ensure the 
young animals turning out useful and good horses, they ought not 
to be much used until six or seven years old. If worked hardly 
and frequently before that period, the seeds of disease are sown, se- 
rious maladies arise, and, among others, ophthalmia, terminating in 
blindness. 
