ON PERIODICAL OPHTHALMIA. 
379 
say, “ Persevere; and if a circumstance of the kind I have 
stated should occur to you, give your opinion firmly and respect¬ 
fully; then, if offence be taken, depend upon it it will be of 
a temporary nature, and increased confidence will eventually be 
placed in you.” 
The epidemic Catarrh, or Influenza, has been, and continues 
to be, very prevalent here; and in a letter which I recently 
received from my highly esteemed friend, Mr. Charles May, 
of Maldon, Essex, I am told the same disease has been very 
common in his part of the country. I have been quite successful 
in treatment, by moderate bleeding and the common fever medi¬ 
cine, with the addition of two drachms of aloes; but after all 
febrile symptoms have disappeared, excessive lassitude and weak¬ 
ness remain. In one gentleman’s stable, where six horses are 
kept, every one had a severe attack ; three have quite recovered, 
and three are still under treatment. I would gladly agitate the 
question of contagion in this affection; but we as yet know so 
little of atmospheric influence, that nothing satisfactory would 
accrue. 
OIN PERIODICAL OPHTHALMIA. 
By Mr. R. Pritchard, F.S., Wolverhampton. 
In regard to the periodical ophthalmia—or specific, or, if you 
please, gouty ophthalmia—of the horse, much has been said, many 
experiments made by men of great talent, yet much difference of 
opinion on the subject exists among professional men, and no 
successful mode of treatment is yet discovered. It may be 
thought presuming in me to make any observations on a disease 
requiring so much tact and experience, or to offer an opinion ; 
but there can be no crime in saying what one knows to be true 
on this or any other subject. 
The periodical, or I think, more properly, the internal, ophthal¬ 
mia of the horse has its peculiaries, and decidedly differs from oph¬ 
thalmia in other animals, and from every species of the disease 
in the human subject; nevertheless there does not appear so 
much mystery and obscurity, as to its nature and cause, as 
has been commonly stated. Professor Coleman considers it a 
specific disease : he compares it to gout in the human subject, 
and considers its exciting cause to be the malaria of the stable; 
thus enveloping the disease in such a cloud of mystery as to 
nearly extinguish all thoughts of further inquiry among the 
junior part of the profession. 
