SIMPLE OPHTHALMIA.
SOME OF THE RESULTS OF IMPERFECT VISION.
The following engraving illustrates some of the accidents which attend upon injured sight in the horse. The eyes are probably more important to the safety and pleasure of the master than any other portion of the quadruped's frame. Let the smallest impediment exist, and there is no telling in what way it may operate. Certain horses are most affected by near objects; others exhibit alarm only when bodies are approaching them; another class of creatures will look upon most forward sights with indifference, but will invariably be horror-struck whenever the view is extensive; while a fourth group will shy violently without mortal vision being able to recognize any cause for terror. In every case, the dread excited overmasters all other feelings. The presence of extreme fear releases the horse from the dominion of its proprietor; its movements are sudden, jerking, and eccentric; the animal has lost all self-control, and there is no saying in what direction it may move or what it may attempt to do. It is regardless of its own life, therefore it is careless about the welfare of others, and he is very fortunate who possesses such a servant and escapes without accident.
There is no cure for a disposition depending upon a change of structure; but there may be a preventive. Would all horse-owners preserve their tempers and forbear from slashing a horse over the head, they would be vast gainers in a pecuniary sense, and would certainly escape very many of those ills now commonly attendant upon equestrian exercises.
Whoever has a shying horse had better discard the creature from all private uses. Send the animal to some work in which the habit will be accompanied with less danger, or never allow the quadruped to quit the stable without having the sight securely blinded. Such things are necessary; but the feeling man, when he considers how much the exercise of the senses sweeten mere animal existence, will sigh over the order which compels him to deprive a horse of that which the common sense of the English has denominated "precious sight."
Simple ophthalmia is inflammation of the fine membrane which covers the horse's eye; it reaches no deeper, it does not affect the internal structures of the organ, and it is not so much to be dreaded in its immediate as in its after consequences. It is caused by accident and by the violence of man.
As the reader has walked the streets, he surely must have seen men indulge their temper by cutting a horse over the head with the whip. The animal capers about and shakes the ears, endeavoring to avoid the chastisement; the man becomes more enraged; the reins are pulled tight, while the master stands up in the gig, and for minutes continues chastising a creature that is bound to the shafts and comparatively at his mercy. Were the horse, thus tortured, to run away, the person who abused his authority would have provoked a severe retribution; but the animal has no such intention. The fault may be far more imaginary than real. The timidity of the horse prevents it from willfully inviting the dreaded lash; possibly the offense resides more with the individual invested with trust over life than with the creature that patiently submits to most unworthy control. At all events, the thong curls about the face; now it cuts the lips, in which the sense of touch resides; the pain is maddening, the horse capers and shakes its head, striving to avoid a repetition of the torture. The next slash, however, turns sharply round the blinkers and lights upon the eye; the horse is held tight, the man feels happy, he has discovered a tender place; the whip is plied again and again, always falling true. It hits the mark. When the animal reaches home, the lid of one eye is closed, and many tears have wetted the cheek, while scars remain after the immediate consequences have passed; the vision is interfered with, and timidity becomes an inveterate shyer.
Also, from the manner in which the rack is placed, a hay-seed frequently falls into the eye. The hay is always kept in the loft above the stables, and a narrow trap-door opens into the rack. This is very convenient for the groom; how could any architect be so very "maudlin" as to design a stable with the slightest consideration for a horse? At every mouthful the head has to be raised and the provender pulled out; probably, human ingenuity could not invent a machine more likely to be attended with injury. The head uplifted, the eye open to direct the bite, the dry grass shaken to pull out the morsel, of course the loose particles are dislodged, and what wonder if one of the hay-seeds should fall into the open eye? This body is small, dry, harsh, and sharp; moved about by the motion of the lid it commits fearful ravages upon the tender organ to which it has found admittance, and simple ophthalmia is the consequence.