476 
ON CATARACT. 
me to say a few words on the subject; and, indeed, I may pro¬ 
bably be expected to state what 1 saw, and what I believe about 
it. 
Since I left the college, fifteen years ago, I have paid parti¬ 
cular attention to the diseases of the eye; and, having the care of 
two of the largest coach establishments between Holyhead and 
London, viz., the Lion and Talbot in this town, at which places 
there are upwards of two hundred horses kept, I have frequent 
opportunities of seeing cases of ophthalmia, as the major part of 
the horses purchased for these establishments are sold in conse¬ 
quence of diseases of the eye ; and when a horse of this descrip¬ 
tion is purchased with cataract, I invariably find, upon inquiry, 
that inflammation was the forerunner. 
Many other circumstances that have occurred in my practice 
convince me that inflammation, in some degree, always precedes 
cataract: such is my opinion; and such I gave upon the trial in 
question, and which was corroborated by three very respectable 
veterinary surgeons. 
On the other hand, Mr. Clay stated, that cataract might form 
in ten days without inflammation, and that he had known 
several cases of it; and, in order to confirm this assertion, he has 
attempted to describe these cases. Now, neither of the cases he 
mentions in his letter proves any thing of the sort. In the se¬ 
cond and third cases he only proves the discovery of the cataract, 
but does not prove that there was not any previous inflammation, 
and which might have occurred to her when the horses were at 
grass, or might afterwards have existed in a slight degree not 
perceivable by a common observer. 
With regard to the filly, the property of Dr. Gardner, I will 
appeal to the profession to say if they think it possible that a 
cataract would form in four or five days, as asserted by Mr. Clay. 
In my opinion it is absolutely impossible; and if Mr. Clay did 
discover a speck in the eye, it must have been a little coagulated 
lymph in the posterior chamber of the eye. 
I say, once a cataract always a cataract; and I never knew an 
instance of its being absorbed; and if cataract w r ould appear in 
the very short space of four days, I think w T e should have heard 
something of it from Mr. Coleman, Mr. Youatt, or Mr. Per- 
civall; and then I should have been inclined to have paid atten¬ 
tion to it. 
With regard to my friend and brother pupil, Mr. J. Hales, of 
Oswestry, whom I consider an ornament to our profession, I must 
beg leave to rectify a trifling mistake of his. In The Vete¬ 
rinarian for July, page 373, Mr. Hales says Mr. Croft “ had 
no supposition that his horse had a cataract, or he would not 
