BLENNORRHCE OF THE EYES. 
13 
opthalmic equine diseases, and then gave a long time to the 
serious study of medical works on the same subject, but that for 
several years the disease not only baffled his endeavors at its 
investigation, but treatment as well, and that only after having 
given to it the most exacting study, by observation and experiment, 
did he finally come to a correct knowledge of its ens, and attain 
success in its treatment. The disease is really not new, and many 
a practitioner will easily recognize it, as he reads the following, 
but it has been, as is too often the case, mystified, and rendered 
obscure, b} r the practice of veterinary writers—not investigators 
—of summing up everything under that wonderful, yet meaning¬ 
less cognomen, “ Ophthalmia.” 
The disease assumes in two forms, which may appear onto- 
genitically, or concomitantly, viz.: “ Blepharobleunorhoe and 
Ophthalmoblennorhoe; in the first case it is limited to the con¬ 
junctiva palpebrarum, and the second complicates that organ in its 
entirety. Blennorhoe cetymologically means a flow of mucous-like 
fluid (“ Sclaleimfluss ”—Deutsch). Pathologically the word is 
used to indicate an abnormal secretion, both quantitative and 
qualitative, of a viscid fluid from the surface of a diseased muco¬ 
sa, as the result of inflammation. The surface of the mucosa 
suffers changes according to the textural changes produced, and 
according to the same secretes a serous like, mucoid-haernorrhogic, 
purulent or purely mucous secrete. Blennorrhce of the eyes is 
accordingly a pathie condition of the same, by which is secreted a 
fluid, having more or less of the above characteristics. 
Besembling all mucosa-affections, the blennorrhoe of the eyes 
finds itself anticipated by a simple catarrh ; yet the terminal 
results of the two disturbances are essentially different, and have 
only this in common, that under circumstances unfavorable to its 
course a simple conjunctival catarrh may terminate in blennorr¬ 
hoe, although in such cases it is illusory to endeavor to draw the 
line of demarcation between the proto and deuteropathic process. 
Yet it is very easy to distinguish between a simple catarrhal 
conjunctiva from blennorrhoe, in that the secreted products of 
the latter find the genesis in profound paranchymatous conjunc¬ 
tival disturbances, involving not only that organ, but the subcom 
