388 
SPECIFIC OPHTHALMIA. 
2d. A mare of the Navarre breed, after several attacks,, losi 
the right eye at three years old. At this time she was coverec 
by a stallion, a cross between the French and Spanish breeds 
the produce of which was a filly, having small weak eyes. Pre¬ 
ventive treatment kept off the disease until the second yeai 
when she was sold, to go to Spain, and in travelling thither be¬ 
came attacked with the ophthalmia. 
3 d. The same mare at six years old had a slight opacity upor 
the crystalline of the left eye. That year she was covered byr 
Navarre horse, whose vision was and ever had been perfect. The 
progeny, a filly, at fourteen months old, got the specific ophthal-, 
mia; on the twentieth month the right eye shewed a cataract, 
while the left was suffering the specific inflammation for the 
second time. 
4 th. R. D. N. purchased an English horse that had become 
blind in consequence of the disease we are now treating on. 
Ignorant of its hereditariness, Mr. N. not only covered all his 
own but very many of his neighbours’ mares with this horse, 
From Mr. N/s own confession, and the avowal of other mosl 
respectable persons, all the produce of this horse either became 
totally blind or lost one eye. 
5th. A mare, a cross between the Andalusian and Navarre 
breeds, was attacked between the second and third years with 
this ophthalmia for the second time. She became in consequence 
blind of the left eye. She was afterwards covered, and brought 
forth a foal, which at one year old had suffered twice from the 
same disease in the same (the left) eye. 
Hence it appears, that hereditary disposition alone, without 
any occasional cause whatever, is, in a great number of instances, 
sufficient for the production of this disease. 
The occasional causes .—Those giving rise to the other species 
of ophthalmia, M. Marrimpoey considers, in the province wherein 
he resides ( le Departement des Basses By rentes ) y to be as clearly 
indicated as those which are hereditary. 
Setting aside all lunar influence as void of the smallest foun¬ 
dation, he has directed his attention to aliment ,* and he believes, 
in his own part of the country, that in the luxurious artificial 
pasture of its fertile plains resides the principal source of this 
disease: in the cultivation of trefoil, sainfoin, and lucerne. Colts 
are brought into these rich pasturages from mountainous situa¬ 
tions where their feed has been poor: here they are induced to 
move about but very little ; they quickly grow fat; general ple¬ 
thora is the natural consequence, an overplus of blood in the 
system, whereby the exhalents are stimulated to outbalance the 
action of the absorbents, and humours are the result. Under 
