[46] "Here the poor takes up horns." Alluding to Horace's "_addis cornua pauperi_."
[47] By this comparison, and the subsequent allusion to an _Ichneumon_ and a Hornet, Linnæus at the present period appears to have taken this _Asilus_ for one of the hymenopterous order, and he even calls it an _Ichneumon_ in _Act. Upsal. ann. 1736, p. 29, n. 8_. The history of its attacking the feet of cattle is given in the first edition of _Fauna Suecica_, 308, on the authority of the country people, but is omitted in the second, probably because Linnæus found he had been misinformed. My learned entomological friend the Rev. Mr. Kirby observes that the real _Oestrus Bovis_ is, as has from all antiquity been believed, the cause of the above-described agitation in cattle, who escape it by running into cool damp places, which it dislikes to frequent.
The people brought me a peasant's daughter, a year and half old, who was deprived of sight, requesting me to say whether her complaint was a cataract. Finding the eyes well formed, without any unusual appearance, and quite free from specks or clouds, I was rather inclined to say the child had a _gutta serena_, but was soon convinced that this could not be the case, as she evidently enjoyed being in the light near the window. But at the same time I remarked curious convulsive motions in the eyes, and that when the child was spoken to, and tried to look towards the speaker, they were turned upside down, so that only the white part became visible. She was born in this state. I inquired of the mother whether, when she was with child, she had seen any body turn their eyes in this manner. She replied that she was then in constant attendance on her mother, or mother-in-law, who was supposed to be dying, but afterwards recovered, and whose eyes were affected with similar convulsions. _Hinc illæ lachrymæ_; this was the cause of the infant's misfortune. I believe it was not originally blind, but that the focus was situated too much on one side of the eye-ball, so that vision was impossible unless the eyes were placed in a particular position with respect to the rays of light, as is observable in persons that squint. The natural situation of the eyes in the subject before me was partly under the upper lid, so that only half the pupil was exposed, and this was sufficient for vision in one particular direction only. I know no remedy for such a misfortune, except perhaps glasses, cut in a peculiar manner for this express purpose, might help it. I recommended however that the child's cradle should be placed with the feet towards the window, so that she might, though not at first without inconvenience, gradually acquire a habit of turning her eyes downward in pursuit of the light; for by repeated efforts any thing becomes possible and easy. Bartholin's management of squint-eyed people is founded on the same principles.