370 
ON CATARACT. 
publication, when 1 meet with any thing 1 judge worth the at¬ 
tention of the profession; but I cannot condescend to make it 
the vehicle of personal slander and local jealousy, which is too 
general a feeling in this neighbourhood. 
ON CATARACT. 
By Mr. J. M. Hales, V.S., Oswestry. 
Whether cataract forms in the eye of the horse without 
previous inflammation has become a prominent subject amongst 
the communications to The Veterinarian for the last four 
months. I hope that I shall be excused for making a few ob¬ 
servations upon that topic, and this more especially, as the 
discussion has arisen out of the trial of Roberts v. Croft, which 
you know, • Messrs. Editors, was reported by me, and as I was 
the first veterinarian in this district that publicly avowed that ca¬ 
taracts sometimes formed without previous inflammation, if not 
the first who entertained such an opinion. I have the pleasure 
to know the whole of the veterinary surgeons examined upon 
the trial alluded to, and consider them to be men of intelligence 
and knowledge in their profession, and that they stated their 
professional opinions in a very straightforward manner. 1 am 
upon terms of friendly intercourse with some of them; and al¬ 
though I then differed with them in opinion as to the occasional 
formation of cataract, I held and still hold them in high esti¬ 
mation. At the trial 1 had a subpoena from both parties, but 
was not called for either, as my opinion cut both ways. On the 
one hand, I could not consider that a horse with a hernia, no 
matter how small, could be sound; and this point was given up 
by Mr. Roberts' counsel, in consequence of his veterinary evi¬ 
dence being of a different opinion, excepting that of my towns¬ 
man, Mr. Hammonds. On the other hand, I considered that 
whenever the cataract had formed, it had not been preceded by 
inflammation; and as there was no proof of its existence at the 
time of sale, there was nothing impossible in the supposition 
that it might have been produced in the twenty-five days that 
elapsed between the time of sale and the examination by 
Mr. Hickman ; for I know that it was on the 18th of July that 
he saw the horse. The above trial took place at the Shrewsbury 
March assizes, 1832. Upon the 30th of the same month, the 
following letter appeared in the Shrewsbury Chronicle news¬ 
paper. 
