258 
G. ED. LEECH. 
ophthalmia, the same being applicable to glanders, grease, azo- 
tnria, etc. The earlier writers called it moon blindness, or j 
lunatic blindness, claiming that as the moon changed the horse : 
gradually recovered his sight ; some also called them moon 
eyes. Mr. Fearon called it gouty optlial; Mr. Spooner, heredi¬ 
tary ophthalmia, and Mr. Croxford asks why it may not be 
called constitutional ophthalmia, and goes on to say that after j 
all the knowledge we have on the subject, this seems to him | 
the one most appropriate to use. 
The Symptoms .—The symptoms, together with the history j 
attached to them, are sufficient to give the practitionei a coirect j 
idea of the nature and progress of the disease. One of the most j 
common accounts one gets is that the horse was all right the j 
night before and that something must have gotten into the eve j 
during the night and, indeed, the half closed aspect only veri¬ 
fies the statement. The upper lid droops on the corner to shut i 
out the light, tears are produced in that quantity that they can¬ 
not be carried off by the puncta lachrymallis, and as a conse¬ 
quent result flow over the lower lid and stream down the face; 
both eyelids, together with the venous vessels in the immedi¬ 
ate vicinity of the eyes, are tumid and fuller than ordinarily. 
What little is visible of the globe of tlie eye appears dull and | 
sunken, the organ is very intolerant to light; and, upon reflect¬ 
ing the lids, causing the ejection of the membrana nictitans, 
we are given a view of the membrana conjunctiva reddened 
and inflamed, commonly of the sub-acute character and more or 
less tumid from infiltration. The circumference of the cornea 
sometimes exhibits a broad nebulous circle, being an extension 
of that which in the human is called arcus senilis. 
In the human eye where there is an arcus senilis of the : 
cornea a similar opaque ring exists around the margin of the 
crystalline body. Is this the case in the horse under disease ? 
At the beginning the anterior chamber of the eye commonly 
preserves its lucidity, so that we distinctly view the iris and 
pupil through it, the latter much contracted, the former un-| 
changed in color, but in the course of two or three days after- 
