42 
VETERINARY JURISPRUDENCE. 
others, twenty-four days had elapsed; which is r a material dif¬ 
ference in time for a cataract to be formed in. 
Mr. Hickman also wrote the following letter in the Shrewsbury 
Chronicle, which it may be worth while to record, as it gives the 
opinion of the celebrated “ Nimrod/’ whose writings used to 
adorn the pages of the Sporting Magazine: though I by no 
means agree with Mr. Hickman that Nimrod’s opinion is as 
good as Mr. Coleman’s either. 
“ Shrewsbury, June 4th, 1832. 
€i Sir,—In consequence of a report being circulated that the 
Professor of the Veterinary College had written a letter to a farrier 
in this town, with reference to a late trial at Shrewsbury assizes, 
stating that a cataract might form in a horse’s eye in ten days, 
I wrote to the Professor to ask the question ; at the same time 
reminding him of the words he made use of in his lectures on 
the eye in the year 1820, when I was a pupil of the College, viz. 
4 Cataracts never appear suddenly, or without previous inflam¬ 
mation, in the horse ; but not so in the human subject.’ Mr. 
Coleman has not yet answered my letter ; I have, therefore, sub¬ 
mitted three questions to a gentleman I consider equally capable 
of giving an opinion, the answer to which, I think, has put the 
question to rest. For the present I shall not make any observa¬ 
tions upon the subject, but hand you the letter for publication. 
“ I am, sir, your obedient servant, 
Edward Hickman.” 
“ Chateau Denys, near Calais, May loth, 1832- 
“ Sir,—Absence from home has prevented an earlier reply to 
your letter of the 5th instant, submitting to me the following 
questions:— 
‘ Do cataracts appear in the eye of a horse suddenly, without 
the eye first being in a state of inflammation ?’—Certainly not . 
‘Do you think that a cataract could have formed in twenty 
days, without previous inflammation ?’—I never knew or heard 
of such a case . 
<c Should you not consider the cataract, or the diseased action 
which caused the cataract, to be in the eye, or in the system, on 
the 23d, when the horse was sold by Mr. Croft ?”—As you state 
the fact of your finding the cataract the second week in July, or 
twenty days subsequent to the sale, it is my opinion that the 
diseased action, the predisposing cause, must have existed pre¬ 
viously to the first named period. My idea of a cataract (I state 
it with deference) is, that it is solely the effect of inflammation 
of the capsule of the lens ; and cannot occur suddenly, nor until 
