ECZEMA IN THE DOG. 283 



converted into greyish or yellowish crusts, sometimes tinted brown by 

 admixture of extravasated blood ; the eczema has become crustaceous. 

 In some animals the superficial layer of the skin is infiltrated with 

 pyogenic microbes and covered with yellowish crusts, beneath which 

 suppuration continues ; these crusts presently become lifted and cracked 

 across, allowing the pus to exude ; the eczema is then known as impeti- 

 ginous. Sometimes suppuration is scarcely apparent ; the crusts at 

 first formed remain adherent, then dry up and fall away. In either 

 case, once the crusts are shed the skin is seen to be still slightly 

 swollen, reddish, and the seat of more or less abundant desquamation ; 

 the eczema has become squamous. Finally, if recovery occur, the 

 swelling, hypersemia, and exfoliation disappear. In a short time the 

 dermis resumes its normal condition, and hair commences to grow. 



We may summarise the successive stages of acute eczema as 

 follows : — Redness and swelling of the skin ; papules ; vesicles, which 

 may or may not become transformed into pustules and rupture ; dis- 

 charge ; crusts ; desquamation. Development always follows a certain 

 order, but in reality no skin disease offers more diversified appearances ; 

 a series of eruptive attacks may occur at very short intervals ; sometimes 

 the symptoms characteristic of these different stages are all present in 

 one patient, and even confined within a very narrow area ; a dis- 

 charging patch may be surrounded by vesicles, papules, or red areas ; 

 the eruption may be localised, disseminated, or almost generalised, 

 while secondary lesions not infrequently accompany those just men- 

 tioned. The acute pruritus seen during eruption causes continual 

 rubbing or scratching, sometimes leading to severe cutaneous inflam- 

 mation and more or less extensive destruction of the papillary layer. 

 If exposed and excoriated, the lymphatic vessels opening on the 

 diseased surfaces, and the groups of lymphatic glands in which they 

 terminate, may become inflamed. 



In generalised eczema — and by this term I wish you to understand 

 not an eruption simultaneously affecting the entire skin, but the 

 existence of disseminated, isolated, or partially confluent centres, vary- 

 ing in age and characters, on the body, head, and limbs, — in this form, 

 I say, one may see febrile symptoms and loss of appetite, the exacerba- 

 tions coinciding with fresh extensions, and finally complications due 

 to visceral lesions. 



An erythematous affection occurs, which in France is known under 

 the name of rouge (red), but which has no connection with sarcoptic or 

 follicular mange. It is, in fact, a form of eczema. The eruption affects 

 parts where the skin is fine and almost bare, or where hair is scanty, 

 especially the elbow, groin, and inner surface of the upper parts of the 



