615 
ON CATARACT. 
By Mr. Thomas Procter, Solihull. 
Mr. Molyneux, in his interesting account of the diseases 
of the eye of the horse, in the October Number of The Vete¬ 
rinarian, after speaking of specific ophthalmia, thus remarks 
on cataract:—Cataract is an opacity, partial or complete, of 
the lens or its capsule, or both. The specific ophthalmia, just 
described, has too frequent tendency to terminate in cataract, 
which, as it never appears as it does in the human subject—a 
disease distinct and independent of the active inflammation of 
ophthalmia—can hardly be said to merit a separate place among 
the diseases of the horse. There is, in the cataract of horses, 
independent of the opacity of the lens, generally much derange¬ 
ment of the internal parts of the eye. The iris sometimes ad¬ 
heres to the lens, at other times the cornea, and in some cases 
its pupillary opening is so reduced by contraction, as to render 
the cataract hardly perceptible.’^ 
Mr. Molyneux’s explanation of cataract is very good ; but I 
cannot agree with him in his assertion, that cataract never 
appears—as it does in the human subject—a disease distinct and 
independent of the active inflammation of ophthalmia.” That 
cataract, nine times out of ten, is preceded by, and the conse¬ 
quence of repeated attacks of inflammation of the eye, is a fact 
as common as the day; but still it is a settled question, with me 
at least, that cataract sometimes appears, and may and does run 
its course, independent of the active inflammation of ophthalmia, 
spoken of by Mr. Molyneux. 
I do not stand alone in holding this opinion ; for Mr. Clay, of 
Shrewsbury, in the trial of Roberts v. Croft, vide Veterinarian, 
vol. V, page 463, says, that he has known cataracts form with¬ 
out active inflammation, or without any previous apparent dis¬ 
ease of the eye. He has detected small cataracts when the 
owners not only had no suspicion of any disease in the eye, but 
declared that no previous inflammation had ever existed. Tes¬ 
timonies of the same kind, from the pens of Messrs. Cartwright, 
Perry, Hales, and others, may be seen in the 7th volume of The 
Veterinarian. 
If every practitioner would testify his experience, I think the 
followers of the old school would be convinced that cataract 
does merit a separate place among the diseases of the horse. I 
am ready to admit, agreeably to what I have said before, thatpwrc 
cataract is not of very common occurrence. Mr. Molyneux is the 
