XXXVIII.— ECZEMA IN THE DOG. 



Of all domestic animals the dog most frequently suffers from skin 

 diseases. Dogs so affected are received into hospital at' all times of 

 the year, and a day never passes without your seeing a certain number 

 in the clinique. 



The study of these diseases has been greatly neglected. Until a 

 comparatively recent time, although the microscope had become a 

 common instrument, the number of practitioners who used it to con- 

 firm their diagnosis of cutaneous disease in the dog was distinctly 

 small. The progress made in the field of human dermatology induced 

 M. Megnin and some other veterinary surgeons to make a special study 

 of diseases of the skin in domestic animals. At the present day the 

 majority of such diseases in the dog are well recognised, and diagnosis 

 is usually easy. 



Eczema, which was first separated from the various forms of mange, 

 then from the dermatomycoses and the several varieties of dermatitis, 

 still comprises a number of diseases, dissimilar as regards their appear- 

 ance and course, but which will undoubtedly be differentiated later. 

 At the present moment the word eczema cannot well be applied to a 

 simple morbid condition, but refers to a group of dermatoses, of acute 

 or chronic course, differing as to symptoms and lesions, usually re- 

 bellious to treatment, apt to return, and usually seen in combination 

 with a special diathesic condition. 



Clinically, eczema appears as an eruptive dermatitis, commonest in 

 animals with the above-mentioned predisposition, directly produced by 

 external or internal causes, sustained by pruritus and the consequent 

 scratching or rubbing, variable in character, development, and gravity. 

 According to the degree of intensity it has been divided into acute and 

 chronic forms. In ma«y cases the former is only the first stage of a 

 process which afterwards develops slowdy, producing obstinate and 

 often permanent lesions. 



It affects animals of all breeds and ages, seems almost equally 



