REPORT ON THE DISEASES OF FARM HORSES. 313 



prevention is clearly to be looked for in the establishment of 

 regularity and system in the feeding, housing, and working 

 departments. 



RlNGWOSM consists in patches of conglomerate vesicles which 

 form in spaces varying from half-an-inch to one and a-half 

 inches in diameter, over the whole surface of the body. Similar 

 conditions are noticed in this disease, as in the one already men- 

 tioned, excepting that it is now acute, attended with considerable 

 fever, irritation, hard and full pulse, reddened mucous membranes, 

 hard faeces, and high coloured scanty urine ; appetite diminished 

 or absent altogether, the animal appears dull, and the countenance 

 haggard. Slight irritation removes the scab and hair from the 

 dried surfaces, which underneath are red and tumified. Ring- 

 worm is decidedly contagious. 



The Cause is a plethoric state due to the mode of feeding 

 pursued. The cure depends upon low diets, purging, administra- 

 tion of nitrate of potass, liquor arsenicalis, &c. The ringworm 

 may be touched with a weak solution of nitrate of silver, nitric 

 acid, &c, &c, all other adjuncts, as cleanliness, &c, being fully 

 enjoined. 



Preventive treatment consists in avoiding excesses of diet, 

 with regular exercise, airy stables, cleanliness in every respect ; 

 the body brush properly used, being itself a great agent in pro- 

 moting the functions of the skin. 



Purpura Hemorrhagica, although affecting the skin, is 

 nevertheless a disease depending upon a certain condition of the 

 blood which favours passive haemorrhage, or in other words, the 

 possibility of the constituents of the blood being allowed to 

 transude through the walls of the circulating vessels. Several 

 kinds or varieties are described by authors, but here one des- 

 cription will suffice for general purposes. 



The symptoms are irregular patches of effusion over the body 

 — particularly under those portions where the skin is thinnest — 

 which continue to increase sometimes gradually, and at others 

 suddenly. Spots, called petichice, are seen on the schneiderian 

 membrane, or membrane of the nostrils ; nose and lips, to- 

 gether with the eyelids, neck, breast, abdomen, and legs, swell, 

 rendering movements oppressive and difficult ; the conjunctival 

 membrane (of the eye) is also spotted ; the pulse is wiry, and 

 hard, and strong, and appetite lost, partial sweats come on, and 

 blood exudes over the surface of the body in large and frequent 

 drops. 



By degrees the swellings merge into each other, and in- 

 crease from the continued deposition beneath the skin, consist- 

 ing of blood and lymph ; discharges of a sero-sanguineous nature 

 take place from nose and eyes, the margin of the latter being 

 swollen ; the respiration is interfered with from the effusion, and 



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