Under some such compact the horse is given to man. The implied, not written obligation, may not be acknowledged or understood; but, nevertheless, it exists, and the terms of the bond are rigidly exacted. Let us regard this matter in relation to specific ophthalmia. A gentleman possesses five horses; he builds a stable twenty feet long, twelve feet wide, and nine feet high; into this place he crams the five huge lives. We will suppose the place to be good of its kind, to be paved with Dutch clinkers and to be perfectly drained; still each horse stands in a stall four feet wide; in this it has to remain all night and the major portion of the day. In this space it has to relieve its body; the liquid, to be sure, may run off by the drain, but it has to fall upon straw, which imbibes some, and to flow over bricks, which absorb more; the solid excrement is during the day removed by the groom as it falls, but it remains in an open basket to taint the air of the place. We will suppose the horses and their attendants, occasionally, are the sole inhabitants, and the building contains none of those things, living and otherwise, which ladies are pleased to order should "be carried into the stable."
THE SPECIES OF EYE WHICH IS
GENERALLY SUPPOSED TO BE
MOST LIABLE TO OPHTHALMIA.
Will the sane reader assert that the space is large enough for its purposes? The stable never can be sufficiently ventilated: it will smell of impurity—of hay, straw, oats, ammonia, and of various other things. The air feels hot. Can it be wondered at? Ten large lungs have been breathing it for weeks and years, during twenty out of every twenty-four hours. Five huge creatures have been cabined there, living by day, sleeping by night, feeding and performing all the other offices of nature. Is it astonishing that the air feels and smells close? Ought we not rather to wonder that animal life can exist in such an atmosphere? The chief contamination is ammonia; ammonia will not support vitality. The reader has inhaled smelling salts; those are purified carbonate of ammonia; have these not made the eyes water? The ammonia of the stable affects the eye of the horse; it also undermines the constitution; but, by constantly entering upon the lungs and stimulating the eyes, it causes the constitutional disease to first affect the visual organs; in short, specific ophthalmia is generated.
Now, to prove the case here stated. In the south of Ireland, where poverty prevails, humanity is obliged to shelter itself in strange places, and any hole is there esteemed good lodging for a horse. In that part of the kingdom ophthalmia affects the majority of animals; it not only preys on horses, but it seizes upon mankind; for the author, a few years ago, was much struck by the quantity of blind beggars to be encountered in the streets of Cork. Here we have the conclusion of the argument; its moral exemplified and enforced. If animals are foully housed and poorly kept, they generate disorders, which at length extend to the human race; therefore he who contends for a better treatment of the horse, also indirectly pleads for the immunity of mankind from certain diseases. Man cannot hold life as a property, or abuse life without his ill deeds by the ordinances of nature recoiling on himself.
Specific ophthalmia is a constitutional disease affecting the eyes; it has been submitted to all kinds of rude treatment; no cruelty but has been experimented with; no barbarity but has been resorted to. It has been traced to various sources; its origin has been frequently detected; but the real cause of the disease, to this day, has not been recognized. The veterinary surgeon is often sent for to just look at a horse which "has got a hay-seed in its eye." This mistake is very common, as ophthalmia generally breaks forth during the long night hours, while the stable is made secure and the confined air is foulest. The groom sees an animal with a pendant, swollen lid, and with a cheek bedewed by copious tears; he can imagine only an accident; but the medical examiner must obey the summons with an unprejudiced mind, because simple ophthalmia is a mere misfortune, specific ophthalmia is a constitutional disorder.
THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF SPECIFIC
OPHTHALMIA.