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ONE EYE STEEPLECHASER Performance of Bovril HI. in This Years Grand Nationcl Attracts Attention in Turf World. SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE. LONDON. England. The splendid performance that Bovril III. ,put up in this years Grand National has naturally drawn attention to the fact that he is possessed of only one eye. The subject of monocular vision is one that has always interested me. A good many years back, when practicing as an ophthalmic and aural surgeon, I came in close contact with it in reference to accidents which occurred under the Workmans Compensation Act. and in these cases it was generally agreed that the loss of an eye did not actually impair the wage-earning capacity of the individual as, with practice, he could educate his one eye to do the work of the two. The difficulty at first is to judge distance and depth, a fact which can be simply illustrated by closing one eye and attempting to touch an object with the tip of the finger. At first orientation is awkward, but after a time becomes easier, and there are few occupations that are outside the range of a one-eyed man. This may quite easily be of importance if the proposed new motor-car license regulations come into force. A layman would naturally consider a one-eyed man unfit to drive a car, but from a medical point of view he is just as capable of doing it as a man with both eyes. CASE OF POLO POXY. Later on I again came into close touch with the subject through the purchase of a polo pony which had lost one eye on the playing field, and my experiences with her were such that I sought the opinions of others who had ridden one-eyed horses through the correspondence columns of a contemporary, and obtained some most interesting data. My own experience with my purchase was that she was an uncertain jumper. The first time I hunted her she never put a foot wrong from the start to the finish of a long day. Naturally I was delighted, but the second time out there was a very different story to relate, as she commenced by going through a stile as it it had not existed, and then went straight up into the air at a fence and landed astride the top of it. This damped my ardour, and at the end of one season I put her by as a mount to use when judging at coursing meetings. At this she was wonderful, and got so that she would follow a hare much as I suppose she had been taught to follow a polo ball. Unfortunately malignant disease broke out in the socket of the lost eye, and, despite operations, grew so rapidly that I had to have her shot OTHER OPINIONS. Now for the opinions of others. Major Studdy sent me particulars of The Nun, who lost her near side eye while being broken. She won the Grand Military Steeplechase, and her loss made no difference to her jumping. Here was the case of a mare who for all practical purposes had never had binocular vision, and so had been forced to educate her one eye to do the double work. The case of the chaser, Cissys Revel, was different. This horse won a number of races before he lost his eye, and after his accident, so his owner told me, jumped perfectly in the hunting field, but right aorcss his fences to the blind side when racing. Apparently he never leaned to accommodate for his loss. Then there are the famous instances of Glenside and Odol. and if one only knew there are certain to be others, but I have written enough upon the subject and must turn to other mattera *
