140 
ON CATARACT. 
It is not to the Professor of the Veterinary College, nor to any 
one connected with that establishment, that we are to look for the 
minutiae of diseases that rarely occur, but to men who have the 
chance of investigating daily, in country practice, the different 
causes and effects of diseases that may be protracted through 
many years. 
Much do I admire Nimrod, as far as he has gone (and he appears 
never to have arrogated to himself much knowledge of veterinary 
science); but I am surprised (and I feel assured so must Nimrod) 
that any veterinary surgeon, in a knotty point, like the one in 
question, should refer to him. Nimrod has done much to amuse, 
and much to instruct sportsmen generally in the management of 
horses, for which he deserves our warmest praise. 
I have generally observed that cataracts, when formed of these 
small distinct bodies on the lens, although they have assumed a 
dense appearance, have been productive of no mischief. It is 
when they form in the centre of the lens, assuming the appear¬ 
ance of rings, slightly clouding the transparency of the lens, and 
not dense as the former, that they are to be dreaded; and this latter 
appearance I believe to be always the effect of inflammation. 
A friend of mine, a surgeon in this town, purchased a bay pony 
with a cataract in each eye : he was ignorant of the fact until he 
shewed the animal to me. They were in appearance extremely 
dense, formed in the centre of the lens, about the size of a small 
white pea; and although the lens was transparent on each side, I 
conceived the vision of the pony must have been imperfect: but 
his owner continued to ride and drive him many years, and he has 
frequently assured me that he was the safest animal he ever 
possessed, and that he never discovered any defect of vision. 
Whilst on this subject, as Mr. Cartwright has not noticed it, 
nor any one else that I know of, I must make an observation on 
the termination of cataract; for though inflammation frequently 
produces cataract, yet this does not, in all cases, appear to be 
the termination of the disease,—it is only the loss of vision. A 
diseased action is frequently carried on after the lens has become 
thoroughly opaque ; for after this opacity is completed, it appears 
as if the lens acted as a foreign body; absorption takes place, 
and the lens not only loses its adhesion to the iris, but falls into 
the anterior chamber of the eye. This I have often observed; 
but I believe it never occurs until after the aqueous tumour has 
been absorbed. 
I have never met with a case where the cataract, however in¬ 
cipient, has been absorbed. 
In July 1832, a gentleman called on me, and informed me 
that he had a foal three days old, and that it appeared to have 
