ON CATARACT IN 
194 
rod's opinion is not only not so good as Mr. Coleman’s, but that 
on so very difficult a subject as cataract, it is worth very little. 
With the exception of the bold assertion, “ Certainly not," it 
merely had reference to what had happened in his own stable, 
and the result of his observation in others. 
When I stated, in my answer to Mr. Hickman, that I had only 
three cases of cataract, I alluded to such as had occurred to 
horses during my possession of them. I will now state two more, 
that do not come under that head. I gave the late Richard 
Bayzaud, Esq. a gentleman well known to all sportsmen, 220 
guineas for a hunter, and, as may be supposed, one very perfect 
in his business. After having him some time, and riding him 
in ail countries, I observed, as I was sheltering in an outbuilding 
which cast a favourable light on his off-eye, that there was a 
deeply-seated cataract in it. I am certain Mr. Bayzaud knew 
nothing of it, neither should I have seen it but for the accidental 
circumstance. To what extent he could see with that eye I 
cannot speak, but he blinked it on the approach of the hand or 
a stick. 
I sold him to General Broadhead for 280 guineas; and he was 
afterwards ridden by a first-rate Oxfordshire sportsman, but no¬ 
thing was ever said or heard of the cataract.—This reminds me 
of another case:—I purchased a mare by Walton out of Highland 
Lass (see Stud Book), bred by Mr. Powell, for a small sum, 
because she had “ pearls in her eyes." I rode her, hack and 
hunter, three years, or more. She was given to start, and par¬ 
ticularly at any thing on the ground, just in her track; but she 
was an admirable cover hack, and a tolerable fencer. This mare 
is now in Shropshire; for I lent her to a nephew, a sailor weigh¬ 
ing 13 stone, who broke her down, by leaping into a lane, off a 
bank, half-mast high, with Sir Richard Puleston's hounds. 
Mr. Mytton gave me a trifle for her, and she was sold at one of 
his sales, in foal to Master Henry. These cases made me look 
very minutely into horses' eyes ever after for cataract; and I was 
the means of preventing two very good sportsmen—the well- 
known Mr. Bunce, one of them—purchasing horses that were 
thus affected. But, gentlemen, excuse my ignorance—do ca¬ 
taracts exist without accompanying blindness ? and is there any 
intermediate defect, known by the term iC pearl?" 
I have not leisure at present, or I would report a case of an 
unsound horse I once had the misfortune to purchase, and the 
reason why I could not recover the price of him. I may do it 
another time, if I thought it would be agreeable to yourselves 
and the profession, for whom I entertain a high regard. Your no- 
