ON CATARACT. 
375 
the eyes of a foal a few days old, which was foaled blind : I 
found a perfect cataract in each eye. I stopped the gentleman’s 
team, a week ago, as it was passing my door, in order to look 
at the eyes of this horse ; the cataracts are both there, and he 
is, of course, totally blind. 
Upon the question of soundness, as it relates to cataract, I 
should say with Mr. Spooner, that every horse with this defect, 
no matter how produced, or how small the opacity may be, is 
unsound. It is a disease that may render the sight defective, 
and perhaps end in blindness. Besides, we should have some 
fixed points to act upon ; and I believe that our profession has 
had much odium thrown upon it from a temporizing way that 
veterinary surgeons have of giving their opinions upon soundness. 
I hate the expression, that a horse may or may not be sound 
with a particular disease, like Mr. Percivall’s cracked decanter. 
If the probable tendency of any disease a horse may have, is to 
render the part affected with it incapable of performing its proper 
function, even at a remote period, I should consider it an un¬ 
soundness, although the animal may be perfectly capable of what 
is required of him at the time of sale, and there may be a 
tolerable chance that the defect may not come against him. 
The knowledge, however, that some diseases will remain 
stationary, although they may not be remediable, is often of great 
importance to us in giving advice to purchasers, as, by weighing 
all the concurrent circumstances, we may frequently, with some 
confidence, advise our employer to purchase or not, although the 
horse cannot be warranted sound. 
I am glad to find that the subject of cataract has brought out 
Mr. Apperley, the far-famed Nimrod ; and am sure that every 
lover of the horse, or of sporting, will feel interested and de¬ 
lighted with productions from the pen of the author of the 
“Letters upon Summering the Hunter,” &c. And as l am proud 
to find him amongst the readers of The Veterinarian, 
perhaps he will be pleased to hear, that the mare he mentions in 
the April number of The Veterinarian came into the pos¬ 
session of Mr. Niccolls, of Crumpnell, near this town, after the 
Halston sales. Mr. N. sold the foal (a colt), by Master Henry, 
at three years old, to a Liverpool gentleman, for a good sum ; and 
I believe he has turned out a first-rate hunter. 
