The management and treatment of the horse in the stable, field, and ...

In the Stable, Field, and on the Road. 185
foreign substance has got into it, and the true case dis-
covered. This seldom affects the health of the horse, or
prevents its feeding. After examining the eye, it should
be bathed with warm water for half an hour, then bathed
with the following :— Tincture of opium half an ounce
water one pint ; or the following is equally as good :
Powdered leaves of foxglove one ounce, boiling water
one quart. It is always advisable to give mashes for
food, and mild doses of physic. Three or four days
should be enough to remove this complaint. If it does
not, you may infer that instead of common inflammation
you have a case of opthalmia, and should call in the
aid of the veterinary surgeon, as it will, if not properly
treated in its first stages, end in total blindness.
Opthalmia is manifested by great inflammation in
the eyelids as well as in the cornea, and a watery
humour and iris, all of which assume a dim appearance,
and lose their transparency. The animal can hardly
open its eyelids from the pain produced by exposure
to the light. This disease is extremely difficult to
combat, and after a month's constant treatment the
eye will exhibit an alternation of remission and
increase of inflammation day after day. One day
it will have all the appearance of being nearly well,
and on the next exhibit more unfavourable symptoms
than it has before assumed. The gorged appearance
of the inner membrane of the eyelid will be much
abated, and the inflammation on the white of the
eyeball will have nearly quitted it, the hazy aspect
of the cornea will have assumed a certain degree
of clearness, and to all appearance the malady will