TRANSLATIONS FROM CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 187 
which these returns have been attributed by ignorant persons; 
if it were so, the attacks would be regular and simultaneous 
on all those animals who are subject to this malady. If 
specific ophthalmia, the author observes, is to be attributed to 
a diathetic state, and to a feeble and lymphatic constitution, 
it would necessarily follow that the abstraction of blood 
might also become an occasional cause of it, and consequently 
hasten its development, or precipitate its access. At the 
beginning of my practice, he further states, many proprietors 
were in the habit of having their horses bled, without any 
reason, once or twice a year. I have often seen specific 
ophthalmia follow these bloodlettings. Thus, on the 22nd of 
October, 1828, I bled some horses belonging to a manufac¬ 
turer of Kheims. On the 23rd and 24th of the month I was 
sent for to see two of the horses, which were affected with 
ophthalmia. On the 30th of October, 1829,1 bled four horses 
at another manufacturers; on the 3rd of November one of 
them was affected with ophthalmia in one eye. In 1836 I 
observed the affection in a horse after the section of the tail. 
In 1834, a woolstapler requested me to bleed his horse, and 
on the 10th it was attacked with ophthalmia. On the 4th of 
May, 1829, the malady developed itself on a horse of M. 
Gras which had been bled two days previous. Finally, he 
adds, I have seen specific ophthalmia supervene on bleeding 
at MM. Lemoine, Lajoye, Reneville, Franconni, Strapport, 
and several others. 
The withdrawal of blood must therefore be considered as 
a disposing cause of specific ophthalmia, and as calculated 
to aggravate the disease in those animals which are already 
affected by it, or those who are predisposed to the malady 
through constitutional debility. The author also remarks, 
that he has observed that those circumstances which predis¬ 
pose to inflammatory diseases, have no influence on the 
development of specific ophthalmia, while all those which have 
a contrary tendency will either cause its development or 
aggravate its attacks. Dust, hay-seeds, blows, &c., are not 
to be reckoned amongst its causes; but dark, damp, and 
badly ventilated stables, the heat caused by the confinement of 
the blinkers when the animals are at work, sudden transitions 
from heat to cold, the reflection of a strong light, working 
with the feet and legs in the water, as when towing boats, or 
on marshy land, or even calcareous soil, or under ground in 
mines, &c., are undoubted causes that will determine and 
aggravate the attacks of this malady, and are to be avoided in 
all cases where there is a predisposition to it. 
The treatment recommended is rational. Antiphlogistics 
