5]8 Journal of Agriculture. [lo Sept., 1908.. 



numbers," and he stated he had " succeeded in cultivating these vegetable 

 parasites apart from the tissues in which they were found." I regret that 

 I have beesn unable to lay hands on a more detailed description of Tryon's 

 fungus as I imagine it to be identical with Trichophyton epilans which I 

 have recently found' associated with a contagious skin disease very pre- 

 valent in Victoria in 1903 and 1904 and to which reference will be made 

 later on. 



I also appealed to M.r. P. R. Gordon, late Chief Inspector of Stock, 

 for information regarding Queensland mange and have pleasure in quot- 

 ing from his courteous reply under date Feb. 26, 1904: — "The disease 

 known as Queensland mange in hor.ses has, I regret to say, not as vet been 

 scientifically investigated. It occurred first here on the breaking up of the 

 drought in 1884, and spread pretty well over the whole of Queensland. 

 Mr. Ed. Stanley, F.R.C.V.S., was despatched from Sydney to report on 

 it. He described it as being caused by a vegetoid parasite, and Mr. Henry 

 Tryon, our entomologist, was of the same opinion. In no instance did it 

 attack horses that were stabled and groomed, and in very few instances did 

 it attack horses grazed iii the open air by day but stabled at night. All 

 sorts of nostrums were brought under notice for its treatment with varying 

 results. I purchased a very badly affected horse for our benevolent asylum 

 and treated merely by frequent washings with .soft soap. The " mange " 

 completely disappeared and it was sent to the institution at Dunwich, which 

 is on Stradbroke Island, and although tihe disease reappeared in the horse 

 the following autumn none of the other horses on the Island suffered. It 

 is not contagious in the sense of beiing communicated from one animal to 

 another, or by interchange of saddlery. I sent specimens to the Brown 

 Institute for Dr. Burdon Sanderson, and the recommendation from that 

 Institutic<n was to exclude the air from tlie parasite (whatever it was) and 

 whale oil came into general use in its treatment and was the most successful 

 of any. 



" It completely died out, but on the breaking up of the long drought 

 last year (1903) it has again reappeared but not to the extent of the first 

 outbreak. ' ' 



Parasitic Eczen^a. 



A contagious form of eczema became \erv pre\alent in Victoria during 

 1903-4 the clinical symptoms of which, though less aggravated, velry 

 closely resemble those described bv Stanley as Queensland mange. The 

 aggravation of symptoms in some cases of the latter disease, I have thought 

 may be due in part to the irritating influence of the sun's rays on an 

 already irritated skin, which influence would be pronounced in tropical 

 regions. It is significant also that the Victorian visitation occurred about 

 the same time as the recrudescence of the disease in Queensland after the 

 breaking of the drought a.s mentiond by Mr. Gordon. In the Victorian 

 disease the croup and quarters are the parts most frequently first affected, 

 and next to these the withers and sides of the neck. Attention is first 

 attracted by the erection or standing on end of small tufts of hair, under 

 which a nodulation of the skin can be distinctly felt. T\\e raised hairs 

 become deadened and fall off in a few days leaving a moist, bare and almost 

 circular patch, at first scaly and with a slightly raised circumference but 

 later on becoming dry, smooth and shinv. These patches \-ary in size from- 

 that of a threepenny-piece tO' a shilling, rarely becoming larger except by 

 confluence of two adjoining patches. Microscopic examination shows that 



