128 PKUKIGO. 



Every practitioner can recal to his mind a number of cases 

 of prurigo, which consist in irritation of some part of the 

 body, or of the surface generally. In cart horses the stamp- 

 ing and rubbing of one leg against the other is a frequent 

 source of severe injury, and if the skin is examined, little is 

 seen to account for the persistent and intolerable itching. 



I have been called to cases where the stall has been 

 padded, sheet over sheet thrown on a horse's body, a cradle 

 placed round the neck, and attention paid that there should 

 be no chance of the animal biting or rubbing itself. 



Very generally such cases occur in the hands of injudi- 

 cious horse keepers, and it will be found that beans and oats 

 are allowed four times a day, and hay ad libitum. In other 

 cases sloppy mashes are given in huge quantities daily. It is 

 then important to stop the supplies, to purge, to wash the 

 skin with soap and water, and keep the horse on little more 

 than half a peck of oats daily, and 12 or 14 pounds of hay. 

 Nitre should be given occasionally, and great care taken to 

 keep the animal's skin clean. A sweating in a hot-air bath 

 must prove of advantage in such a case, but occasionally the 

 plans of treatment here recommended have failed. It is then 

 necessary to administer arsenic internally, in doses of from 

 three to five grains daily given in food. 



I have not seen any benefit derived from bloodletting in 

 such cases ; and if the animal affected is fat or plethoric, it is 

 best to reduce condition by purgatives and exercise. 



Exercise is sometimes sufficient to cure ordinary attacks of 

 prurigo, but it cannot be relied on entirely. Prurigo may 

 be seen in horses that are daily at work, and the regularity 

 of exercise, with excess of food, favours that state of plethora 

 which so often induces the irritation of the skin. 



