284 HEREDITARY DISEASES OF HORSES AND CATTLE, 
(y.) Specific Ophthabnia in Cattleis not so common a disease 
as with the horse, but it has the same periodical character, 
and will disappear and return until it reaches its natural 
termination — blindness. The constitutional nature of the 
disease being once correctly ascertained, the farmers usually 
fatten the animal for the butcher, or at least they should do 
so, as its hereditary character is as certain as it is in the 
horse. 
(h.) Gutta Serena, commonly known as the “ glass eye,” is 
a disease characterised by a preternaturally dilated and 
motionless pupil, the consequence of palsy of the optic 
nerve, or of the retina. It is fortunately a disease of rare 
occurrence, and is supposed to be produced by determination 
of blood to the head. But cases sometimes occur in which 
there is no discernible cerebral affection. A case of this kind 
happened to a horse of our own, and on making inquiries 
some time after of the breeder, the dam was acknowledged 
to be similarly affected. Mr. Baker, V.S., of Reigate, alludes 
to a case in The Veterinarian of a foal which was born with 
gutta serena ; and on making the necessary inquiries, the 
mare’s eyes were found perfect, but the sire was proved to 
be thus diseased ; and, what was still more worthy of re- 
mark, not one of his colts escaped imperfect vision. 
Connected with the subject of constitutional ophthalmia, 
instances sometimes occur where the disease has been lost 
in one generation and makes its appearance in another. 
This was remarkably so in the case just recorded of the 
“ Katerfelto” stock. The gout in the human subject will at 
once occur as a familiar example of this singular variety in 
the general law of the perpetuation of the species. The 
breeder sometimes meets with analogous cases in the striking 
and strongly-marked features of an animal being lost in one 
generation, and re-appearing in the second or third. 
Connected with this singular anomaly in another variety 
observed in the transmission of disease — that of a number 
of the offspring being affected in common with some par- 
ticular disease, of which there has been no certain instance 
on the side of either parent. 
Instances of this kind can be adduced with respect to 
curbs and spavins . A thorough-bred horse, (e Royal Wil- 
liam,” served mares in Cornwall for some five or six years. 
He was a large, powerful horse for a thorough-bred, and was 
perfectly free from curbs. We have examined more than a 
hundred of his stock, and believe that seventy-five per cent, 
had curbs, varying from three years old and upwards. This 
horse, getting out of repute in consequence, was sent to 
