440 ' DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 



Treatment. — To treat very painful boils a free incision with a 

 lancet in two directions, followed by a dressing with one-half an 

 ounce carbolic acid in a pint of water, bound on with cotton wool or 

 lint, may cut them short. The more common course is to apply a 

 warm poultice of linseed meal or wheat bran, and renew daily until 

 the center of the boil softens, when it should be lanced and the core 

 pressed out. 



If the boil is smeared with a blistering ointment of Spanish flies 

 and a poultice put over it, the formation of matter and separation of 

 the core is often hastened. A mixture of sugar and soap laid on the 

 boil is equally good. Cleanliness of the skin and the avoidance of all 

 causes of irritation are important items, and a teaspoonful of bicar- 

 bonate of soda once or twice a day will sometimes assist in warding 

 off a new crop. 



NETTLERASH ( SURFEIT, OR URTICARIA). 



This is an eruption in the form of cutaneous nodules, in size from 

 * a hazelnut to a hickory nut, transient, with little disposition to the 

 formation of either blister or pustule, and usually connected with 

 shedding of the coat, sudden changes of weather, and unwholesome- 

 ness or sudden change in the food. It is most frequent in the spring 

 and in young and vigorous animals (good feeders). The swelling 

 embraces the entire thickness of the skin and terminates by an 

 abrupt margin in place of shading off into surrounding parts. When 

 the individual swellings run together there are formed extensive 

 patches of thickened integument. These may appear on any part of 

 the body, and may be general; the eyelids may be closed, the lips 

 rendered immovable, or the nostrils so thickened that breathing 

 becomes difficult and snuffling. It may be attended by constipation 

 or diarrhea or by colicky pains. The eruption is sudden, the whole 

 skin being sometimes covered in a few hours, and it may disappear 

 with equal rapidity or persist for six or eight days. 



Treatment. — This consists in clearing out the bowels by 5 drams 

 Barbados aloes, or 1 pound Glauber's salts, and follow the operation 

 of these by daily doses of one-half ounce powdered gentian and 1 

 ounce Glauber's salts. A weak solution of alum may be applied to 

 the swellings. 



SCALY SKIN DISEASE, OR PITYRIASIS. 



This affection is characterized by an excessive production and 

 detachment of dry scales from the surface of the skin (dandruff). It 

 is usually dependent on some fault in digestion and an imperfect 

 secretion from the sebaceous glands, and is most common in old horses 

 with spare habit of body. Williams attributes it to food rich in sac- 



