The grand measure, however, remains to be told. Remove every horse from the stable in which the attack occurred; then elevate the roof, widen the gangway, and enlarge the stalls; improve the ventilation, overlook the drains, lay down new pavement—in fact, reconstruct the edifice. It is felt that, in giving these directions, a proposal is offered to demolish a building. The author is fully alive to the expense of such a transaction; but one valuable horse will pay for a great deal of bricks and mortar. Experience has decided that the most humane way is, in the long run, the cheapest method of proceeding. Ophthalmia is a teasing and a vexatious disorder. If the owner has no feeling with the inhabitants of his homestead, still let him study his own comfort, for it is astonishing how very much good stabling adds to the appearance and to the happiness of a mansion.
Specific ophthalmia does not terminate in death; it usually leaves the victim blind in one or both eyes. In England, however, it is mostly satisfied with the destruction of one organ; the strength of the other becoming, after its departure, considerably improved. At the same time, having caused the lids to swell, it leaves them in a wrinkled or a puckered state; the remaining eye is likewise somewhat sensitive to light. To gain in some measure the shadow of the brow, and to escape the full glare of day, the eye is retracted; all the muscles are employed to gain this end, but the power of the levator of the upper lid causes the eye to assume somewhat of a three-cornered aspect.
It is always desirable to recognize the animal which may be or may have been liable to so fearful an affection. One symptom of having experienced an attack is discovered on the margin of the transparent cornea. The inflammation extends from the circumference to the center. The margin of the transparent ball is generally the last place it quits; here it frequently leaves an irregular line of opacity altogether different to and distinct from the evenly-clouded indication of the cornea's junction with the sclerotic, which last is natural development.
AN EYE DISPLAYING THE RAVAGES
OF SPECIFIC OPHTHALMIA.
Nevertheless, the internal structure best display the ravages of specific ophthalmia; it is upon these the terrible scourge exhausts its strength. The eye becomes cloudy; loses its liquid appearance; the black bodies attached to the edges of the pupillary opening either fall or seem about to leave their natural situation. The pupil becomes turbid, then white; the iris grows light in color, and at last remains stationary, having previously been morbidly active. The whiteness of the pupil grows more and more confirmed, and every part grows opaque; by this circumstance, the total cataract, arising from specific ophthalmia, is frequently to be challenged. The lens, moreover, is often driven, by the force of the disease, from its position; it lodges against the inner surface of the globe. Very common is a torn or ragged state of the pupil witnessed, as was stated, during the intensity of the attack, for the iris contracts to exclude the light; remaining thus for any period, it becomes attached to the capsule of the lens; when the disease mitigates, it often rends its own structure by its efforts to expand. Should those efforts prove unavailing, the pupillary opening, as sometimes happens, is lost forever.
TERMINATION TO SPECIFIC OPHTHALMIA.
In the previous description of disorder, no mention has been made of the cartilago nictitans, or haw, or third eyelid, as it has been called. This thin body is very active, and resides at the inner corner of the eye; of course, in a disease under which the eye is pained by light, the haw is protruded to the utmost. In ophthalmia, however, it is covered by an inflamed membrane, and though in health its movements are so rapid that it may easily escape notice, yet in this disease it lies before the eye, red and swollen; this substance it was once common for farriers to excise, under a foolish notion of removing the cause of the disorder.
The use of the cartilago nictitans in the healthy eye will now be explained. Let the reader inspect any of the illustrations to this article; he will find the outer corner represented as being much higher than the inner corner of the eye, where the active little body resides. Under the upper lid, near to the outer corner, is situated the lachrymal gland, which secretes the water or tears of the eye.