ABSORPTION OF THE OPAQUE CAPSULE. 
379 
Some one has said that mares are seldom roarers ; but twenty 
years and upwards of observation and experience have convinced 
me that mares possess no immunity from the affection, and are 
as often the subjects of it as horses or geldings. Such an opinion 
could have had no proper ground for its foundation, either theo- 
retical or practical. 
I have been more prolix on the important subject of respira- 
tion than I at first intended ; but it possesses so much interest 
to the veterinary surgeon, and demands so much of his skill and 
talent, that I flatter myself the readers of The Veterinarian 
will forgive me, and permit me once more to occupy a few pages 
of that valuable work. 
[To be continued.] 
ON THE ABSORPTION OF THE OPAQUE CAPSULE 
OF THE CRYSTALLINE LENS. 
By Wm. W. Cooper, Esq., Surgeon to the Hon. Art. Com. 
My attention was attracted to a paper by Mr. Cartwright, in 
the last number of your periodical, upon the question as to 
whether or not the opaque capsule of the crytalline lens is capable 
of being absorbed after the removal of the lens itself. Mr. Cart- 
wright supports the opinion of its absorbable nature, and quotes 
passages from the works of Percivali, Pott, and Mr. Hey, of 
Leeds, who take the same view of the subject. 
Since the time when those eminent men contributed their 
writings, the science of medicine generally has been advancing 
with rapid strides ; and no department of it has been more care- 
fully and elaborately studied, and more beneficially improved, 
than ophthalmic surgery, which at that period was at a low ebb. 
The opinion commonly entertained at the present day amongst 
ophthalmic surgeons with regard to the question at issue, is, that 
the capsule of the lens does not undergo absorption, and that 
it is not capable of being removed in that way. Upon this point 
Messrs. Tyrrell, Lawrence, Mackenzie, and Dr. Farre, at home, 
with Dieff'enbach and Tuengken in Germany, have expressed 
their positive conviction ; and their names stand so high, that 
great weight must be attached to their opinions. 
Mr. Tyrrell has had the opportunity of examining a vast num- 
ber of cases in the course of his experience, which has been very 
great; and the reasons which have led him to this conclusion 
