193 
THE EYE OF THE HORSE. 
their general health appeared to be somewhat affected, and the 
eyes became still further disorganized. 
I hope the above subject will not be allowed to drop until it 
has engaged the attention its importance inents ; and I trust that 
other veterinarians, of greater experience and more extended 
practice, may be induced to favour the piofession vVith the result 
of their observations. 
ON THE FORMATION OF CATARACT IN THE EYE 
OF THE HORSE. 
By Charles James Apperly, Lsq. 9 Author of Nimrod s 
• Letters. 
Although I see little of the treatment of the horse in this 
country (France)but what disgusts me, I like to hear what is going 
on with him in my own ; so being in London in January, I pur¬ 
chased the six last numbers of The Veterinarian, in one of 
which I find the Shrewsbury cataract case reported, with a copy 
of my letter to Mr. Hickman, V.S. of that town, annexed.^ It 
appears that my answer, Certainly notf to the question, ( Do 
cataracts appear in the eye of a horse suddenly, without the eye 
liavino' been first in a state of inflammation? required some 
qualification; although, being backed by Mr. Percivall, who 
thinks it possible, but never saw it, I get out of the scrape pretty 
well. To my other answers there appear no objections. 
Now, as to a cataract being one week in a horse s eye and the 
next out of it, I cannot dispute the fact on the ocular demon¬ 
stration of Mr. Cartwright; and it seems he has seen more than 
one instance of it. It is certainly a novelty to me; but these 
are the days of novelties; and I will only add a hope that, as 
absorption of cataract does take place of itself, the veterinary art 
may devise some means to promote it. The author of The 
Horse,” in the Farmers’ Series, says, “ Cataract admits of no 
remedy.” 
I have read Mr. Percivall’s beautifully scientific lectures on 
the eye and its diseases until I have fancied I had a cataract in 
my own eye ; but they have convinced me of two material facts 
first, that it is very difficult to form a correct judgment of a 
horse’s eye, even with those who have made it then study; 
and, secondly, that unless cataract be the effect of inflammation 
(see page 226, Lecture on Cataract), it takes even a cleverer fel¬ 
low—if you can find him—than Mr. Percivall to find out any 
other cause; and I quite agree with Mr. Cartwright, that Mm- 
