IMPETIGO LABIALIS S. FACIALIS. 137 



there is a continuous discharge of pus and blood from the 

 parts affected. 



Mr Robertson applied at first a lotion consisting of half* 

 a drachm of sulphate of zinc, and half a drachm of acetate 

 of lead, in a quart bottle of water. This had no effect, 

 and the ointment of the nitrate of mercury was resorted 

 to with the greatest advantage. 



Some information may be gleaned as to the probable cause 

 of this disease. In 1841, a German veterinarian, Steiner, 

 reported that, during the summer of that year, the legumi- 

 nous plants, especially the vetches, became subject to honey- 

 dew, and all the white horses, or those that had white marks, 

 that partook of those plants, were affected with a peculiar 

 skin disease. The white skin was inflamed and sloughed, 

 whereas all dark-coloured horses, and the dark portions of 

 skin, remained healthy. 



A similar disease has been seen amongst young sheep, 

 pigs, and, more rarely, cattle and horses fed on buck- 

 wheat. On exposure to the sun, the white portions of the 

 skin swell, are intensely red, and slough. Hering saw the 

 disease in 1833 and 1834, amongst animals which partook 

 of buckwheat in flower and seed. In 1828, the foals at a 

 breeding depot at Alt-Ulrich stein suffered very severely, and 

 it was attributed to the wet weather and eating a variety of 

 wild polygonum. 



Time must decide whether all the cases noticed under im- 

 petigo labialis, or facialis, are really cases of impetigo, or 

 whether some of them should be considered under a differ- 

 ent head. There .seem to be sufficient points of analogy 

 between the cases here referred to and the disease spoken of 

 by Roll as impetigo labialis, to warrant their being grouped 

 together. 



