ON CATARACT 
37 3 
I have known Mr. Clay during the greater part of his and my 
own life, and consider him a very respectable man in and out of 
his profession. I have for some years been convinced of the fact 
that small cataracts are observed in the eye of the horse without 
their having been preceded by inflammationj and I have in my 
memory, at this moment, half a dozen cases that have so arisen. 
In several of them the owners of the horse were unconscious of 
the existence of any disease in the eye, and have assuied me 
they had not the slightest suspicion that the eye was not per¬ 
fectly good. Mr. Croft’s case is precisely in point: he had no 
supposition that his horse had a cataract, or he would not have 
requested Mr. Hickman to make a general examination of him, 
after that gentleman had declared himself satisfied upon the point 
in dispute. I have had the pleasure to be acquainted with Mr. Croft 
for many years, and am very confident that he is incapable of 
making an unjust statement upon such a subject; and he has 
several times told me, both before and after the trial, that he oied 
the horse, and that he never, to the knowledge of himself or 
any servant about his house, had been known or supposed to have 
had an inflamed eye. 
In these kinds of cataract there is no difference to be seen 
between the eye affected with the disease and an healthy one, 
except the appearance of the cataract; they are equally clear 
and lucid, which I believe is never the case when the eye has 
been once attacked with the “ specific ophthalmia. The opacity 
is small and well defined, and I consider its seat to be in the 
capsule of the lens. 
How or when these cataracts form I know but little of from 
my own experience, as the general answer to my inquiries upon 
this subject has been, either that they did not know of its ex¬ 
istence, or that it had always been the same. In one instance 
a friend of mine asked me to look at a very favourite horse of his, 
as he had lately discerned a speck in one of his eyes. Upon 
examination 1 found a small cataract, and asked if he could give 
anv account of its origin : he replied that he could not; that he 
had never known any thing the matter with the eye till he saw 
the speck, and was certain that it had not been there long, or he 
must have seen it; and I fully believe he would, for he was a 
person particularly attentive to his horse, and would have been 
aware of the slightest imperfection in him. 
Mr. Percivall, Mr. Cartwright, and Mr. Harris state that they 
have known cases in which cataracts have been absorbed, after 
existing for a longer or shorter time. It has never fallen to my 
lot to see a case of this description; many, and, perhaps, the 
VOL. vii. 3 c 
