372 
ON CATARACT. 
lias been subject to it; and I have very little doubt but the 
€ sponging’ Mr. Croft speaks of, was for that complaint. It 
is also worthy of remark, that so fatal is this disease (specific 
ophthalmia) that veterinarians generally recommend their em¬ 
ployers to dispose of them ere another attack comes on; for I 
believe, if the truth be told, few, if any, are ever cured, but 
always terminate in cataract. I am led to make these remarks, 
not from any vindictive motives, but merely for truth’s sake ; 
and I have no doubt but that your columns will be open for 
what any others may have to say in reply on this subject. 
i 
“ I am. Sir, yours, See. 
“ W. A. Cartwright. 
“ Whitchurch, March 26, 1832.” 
Not long after the publication of the above letter, Mr. Cart¬ 
wright was kind enough to pay me a visit, when our conversa¬ 
tion naturally reverted to the trial, his letter, and the subject of 
cataract generally, at which time I told him that I thought him 
wrong in publishing such a letter in a newspaper, and that I 
was convinced that small cataracts, like that in the eye of 
Mr. Croft’s horse, frequently were not forerun by inflammation, 
and that he would find it so by attentive observation : the result 
has been the cases that Mr. Cartwright has published in The 
Veterinarian. 
I am one of the last men that would wish to detract from the 
professional reputation of Mr. Cartwright, and I am sure he will 
give me full credit for this assertion. I know him to be a very 
persevering man, to whom great merit is due; but cannot help 
thinking that, in common candour, he ought to have mentioned 
from whence it was that he was led to take the views of cataract 
that he has done, particularly as he has endeavoured to impress 
upon the readers of The Veterinarian, that Mr. Clay was 
under an obligation to some one else for the opinion he gave 
upon the subject; for he concludes his paper in the January 
number with the following words —“ especially as I am informed 
that such opinion (Mr. Clay’s) did not originate with himself, 
or from his own experience, but from information derived from a 
neighbouring veterinarian.” This sounds, to my ears, something 
like ill-nature; and as I have every reason to believe myself the 
person to whom Mr. C. alludes in this remark, I cannot, in 
justice to Mr. Clay, refrain from observing, that he is in no other 
way indebted to me in the matter in question, beyond friendly 
communication with a brother practitioner upon a subject that 
we, in great measure, entertained the same views of. 
