754 CATARRHAL OR ECZEMATOUS INFLAMMATIONS. 



papillary layer of the dermis and in the rete, whether these 

 are to result in excess of serous effusion or of pus-formation 

 will depend greatly on the individual tendency or pecuharity 

 of the particular animal. Such changes appear not to be 

 altogether determined by the mere character or intensity of 

 the local action. 



Diagnosis. — As eczema is one of the commonest of the skin 

 affections to which the horse is subject, it is also that which is 

 encountered in the greatest number of diversified forms, and is 

 exceedingly apt to be confounded with, or rather mistaken for, 

 some other skin affection to which, in one or other of its rather 

 numerous manifestations, it bears much resemblance. 



In the true typical form — which it does not always exhibit 

 — as already noticed, it may pass through the different condi- 

 tions of erythema, papulation, vesiculation, pustulation, and 

 squamation. Essentially it is to be regarded as an exudative 

 or moist disease ; and, although we may not always see the 

 vesiculation or ichoration, we may always possess evidence of 

 its existence by the resulting encrustation of the exuded 

 material. From the papular or plastic inflammations it is to 

 be distinguished by the fact that, unless considerably abraded, 

 these are not characterized by discharge and formation of 

 crusts, but rather by the existence of soft, fleshy excrescences, 

 or papules. From the acute forms of dermatitis, as erysipelas, 

 it is clearly marked off by the presence in the latter of much 

 constitutional disturbance and fever, and by the nature of the 

 local lesions, which in eczema are vesicles, and in erysipelas 

 phlyctena3. In the chronic form it may be confounded with 

 psoriasis, from which, however, it may be distinguished by 

 the history of the case, the character of the squamation, and 

 by the existence, at the same time, in other parts of the body 

 of the eczematous inflammation in a different stage. 



Treatment. — This ought, to a great extent, to be regulated by 

 the form of the eczema, and the stage or age of its growth in 

 which we encounter it. Remembering that in typical cases it 

 has a regular course — from irregularly distributed erythema to 

 furfuraceous scaling, through which it is likely to pass — our 

 endeavour ought always to be to have the last stage reached 

 as early and with as few complications as possible. 



In the simpler forms and earlier stages, when vesiculation 



