I 
SHY HORSES. 95 
strange to him, and he is afraid of it, and consequently shies 
at it. 
This leads us to the particular part of the subject taken up 
by our correspondent; and, certes, it is, in a veterinary point of 
view, the more interesting, useful, and practical part; but it was 
necessary, we conceive, to enable us to answer his queries with 
some show of reason and experience, to enter, with no less bre¬ 
vity than we have done, into the philosophy of shyness and its 
parent, fear. No one, we presume, will affect to deny that imper¬ 
fect vision is a cause of shyness: that horses grow shy as they 
grow old is too well known to need elucidation, and that this does 
not arise from cunningness, according to the notions of the crafty 
groom, is a fact equally demonstrable to a veterinarian or expe¬ 
rienced and sagacious horseman, who knows that horses, like 
men, evince timidity and other failings as they advance in years, 
and that many of these are ascribable to the decay consequent 
upon age in the organs of vision. This however is not the point 
brought into question by our correspondent, or at least not that 
on which he seeks information : for decay from age would be 
irremediable ; whereas the defect concerning which he has writ¬ 
ten he conceives to admit of remedy, and indeed has suggested 
one for it. 
But, now that we have got so far, let us be cautious how we 
proceed. Is it an admitted fact that shyness has its origin in 
prominency of the globe of the eye?’’—in technical language, 
in preter-natural convexity of the transparent cornea ? It is be¬ 
lieved that such exuberance is a cause of near-sightedness in 
men; but have any, or can any, well-authenticated accounts be 
brought forward to show that the same thing happens in horses? 
rather, has not analogy (that bridge so inviting to cross but so 
dangerous to pass over) led us first to imagine and afterwards 
to believe this? We are not saying, nor do we wish any one to 
think, that there are no instances on record: we merely take 
the liberty to question the fact, not being ourselves in posses- 
