ECTHYMATOUS SKIN DISEASES. 759 



ointment will be called for ; or in cases of evident want of 

 vital activity in the patches which have been denuded of hair, 

 some skin stimulant may be employed. Those animals which 

 give evidence of disturbed digestion will require such to be 

 attended to ; while it will usually be observed that the greater 

 number of cases give evidence of being below rather than above 

 par, and that general tonics, as sulphate of iron, or quinine 

 with acids, are more likely to be serviceable than repeated 

 doses of purgatives. 



F. SUPPURATIVE INFLAMMATORY OR ECTHYMATOUS SKIN 

 DISEASES. 



By suppurative inflammatory or ecthymatous diseases of 

 the skin it is designed to indicate merely those affections 

 which are marked out and characterized by this phenomenon 

 of pus-formation as a primary lesion. 



With our present-day ideas of inflammatory action we can 

 understand that any inflammatory affection of the dermal 

 structures may issue in pus-formation, and practically we are 

 aware, and have noticed, that the catarrhal inflammatory 

 actions of the eczemata may pass from vesicles containing 

 merely serous fluid to the mingling of this with pus-cells. 

 Regarding this form of inflammatory action, however, in the 

 former light, as including those in which pus-formation occurs 

 as a primary phenomenon, we have only to deal with ecthyma 

 proper, and probably also furimculus. 



Ecthyma. 



This diseased condition we regard as consisting in distinct, 

 rather large pustules, projected upon an elevated, hard, and 

 tender base, which, when the pus is discharged, become crusted 

 with a dark-coloured scab, rather long in removal, and when 

 detached, resulting in a temporary indented cicatrix. This 

 disease is of rather frequent occurrence in the adult horse, 

 while evidence seems sufficient to satisfy most observers that 

 such distinct pustulation of the dermal textures may occur 

 in at least two forms. Accepting the definition of ecth}Tna 

 already given, these forms may in all essentials be considered 

 identical. 



In the one form, the papulation and pustulation may be 



