THE ORBIT OF THE EYE. 
507 
the atrocities that are practised on the inferior creation, seen that 
cartilage partly or even entirely torn asunder. I have never been 
able satisfactorily to ascertain the existence of this during life, but I 
have found it in those whom I had recommended to be destroyed on 
account of the brutal usage which they had experienced. Blows 
somewhat higher, and on the thick temporal muscle of this animal, 
will very rarely produce a fracture. 
Exostosis. — This has not been often observed, either on the 
orbital arch, or within the orbit in the horse, but it is of too fre- 
quent occurrence in cattle. I have sometimes thought that there 
was a constitutional tendency to it, or there was that in the lax 
construction of the bone of the ox which disposed to the forma- 
tion of bony tumours from causes that would have had little or 
no effect of this kind in the horse. The different consequences of 
inflammation of the joints in the two animals is a sufficient illustra- 
tion of this. 
Its Frequency abroad. — There are few practitioners on the dis- 
eases of cattle in England who have not been occasionally annoyed 
by these exostoses; but, in France, whether from constitutional 
predisposition, or from the greater degree of ill usage to which 
this animal is exposed, it is far more prevalent. I refer again to 
the valuable work of my friend, M. Leblanc, on the Diseases of 
the Eyes in Quadrupeds, in proof of this. He says that the ox is 
oftener exposed than other domesticated animals to exostoses about 
the eyes, on account of the slighter resistance which the bones of 
this animal offer to the frequent contusions which they almost daily 
receive. I have also remarked that the facility and the prompt- 
ness with which these exostoses develop themselves have a more 
or less direct relation with the previous state of the part and the 
constitution and health of the animal. When there is no pre- 
existent irritability of the part, and no constitutional affection, the 
exostosis usually terminates in simple induration of the part; but, 
if there has been previous local injury or constitutional disease, the 
result will too often be osteosarcoma and caries. This is the usual 
history of diseases of the bones in the ox. 
Idiopathic Exostoses behind the eye are incurable. Those which 
are situated anteriorly may be removed if they are pediculated, 
and occupy the superior part of the arch of the orbit; but others 
will yield only to some topical energy of the absorbent system, 
produced either by the cautery, or, what is far more efficacious, 
frictions with iodine. 
The Power of Iodine. — In the work on “ Cattle,” written for 
the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, I described a 
method of advantageously applying the cautery, for the reduction 
of tumours, without producing blemish on the part; but my almost 
