Page:Hints to Horse-keepers.djvu/38

30 instances, where it has arisen from neglected strangles,—generally known in the United States as colt distemper,—or from a simple inflammation of the larynx, the result of a cold, it will probably never reappear; but when the genuine ideopathic roaring has made its appearance, apparently depending upon a disease of the nerves of the larynx, it is ten to one that the offspring will suffer in the same way. "Blindness, again, may or may not be hereditary; but in all cases it should be viewed with suspicion as great as that due to roaring. Simple cataract, without inflammation, undoubtedly runs in families; and when a horse or mare has both eyes suffering with this disease without any other derangement of the eye, I should eschew them carefully. When blindness is the result of violent inflammation brought on by mismanagement, or by influenza, or by any similar cause, the eye itself is more or less disorganized; and though this is of itself objectionable, as showing a weakness of the organ, it is not so bad as the regular cataract." The writer quoted is one of much and standard authority, yet it is questionable whether, in his desire to put the question fairly in all its lights, he has not laid too little rather than too much stress on both these perilous affections. We should say, under no possible circumstances breed from a stallion which has any affection of any kind, of the respiratory organs, whether seated in the lungs or in the windpipe, or from one which has any affection of the eyes, unless it be the direct result of an accident, such as a blow or a puncture,—nor even then if the accident having occurred to one eye, the other has sympathetically followed suit; and, on the other side, we should say, on no account breed from a mare affected in either way, unless she be possessed of some excellencies so extraordinary and countervailing that for the sake of preserving the stock, one