24 Vetef'inary Medicine. 



Respirations. The morbid activity or inactivity of the respi- 

 ration, its modified rythm, the pathological significance of the al- 

 tered breathing sounds and of the superadded sounds, the indica- 

 tions furnished by percussion, palpation, mensuration, succussion, 

 sneezing, snorting, yawning, cough, moan, grunt, stertor, dis- 

 charge, etc., afford material of inestimable value to the diagnosti- 

 cian. See under diseases of the chest. 



Skin Symptoms. The erection of the liair of carnivora in 

 rage or fear implies a profound nervous disturbance, and a simi- 

 lar erection (staring coat) in the larger herbivora especially, im- 

 plies a corresponding nervous disorder, due however to a different 

 cause. The pallor and coldness of (white) skin and extremities 

 the retrocession of blood toward the internal organs, the contrac- 

 tion of the involuntary muscles of the hair bulbs, the sense of 

 cold, and the actual shivering all come from the fundamental 

 nervous disorder. The loss of lustre and gloss in the hair and 

 the dryness, rigidity and mobility (mellowness) of the skin im- 

 ply lack of nutrition. The mellow feeling of the skin under the 

 pressure of the finger, soft and yielding by reason of the lax 

 connection tissue and fatty layer in the thrifty animal, is in 

 marked contrast with the dry, hard, tough, unyielding hide 

 firmly adherent to the parts beneath (hidebound), which denotes 

 the unhealthy or unthrifty animal, or from the thin, attenuated, 

 mobile, bloodless skin of the debilitated subject, the victim of 

 lung, liver, or intestinal worms. In sheep in parallel conditions 

 there is a lack of yolk in the wool, which is dry, lustreless and 

 brittle and often flattened (clapped) on the skin. In fowls ruf- 

 fling of the plumage indicates the nervous disorder and chill. 

 The skin may be scurfy in conditions of low health or in con- 

 nection with the presence of vegetable or animal parasites. Ring- 

 worm has excessive scurf, and tends usually to a circular form, 

 and to complete shedding of the hair from the spots. The hairs 

 split up before dropping. In acariasis there may be scurf, scab, 

 abrasion and sore of many kinds, but the outline is not neces- 

 sarily circular, nor strictly limited, isolated hairs remain even on 

 the bare patches, and itching is extreme as shown by the move- 

 ment of the body and especially of the lips or foot when the part 

 is scratched. 



The hair may be freely shed during convalescence from debili- 

 tating diseases, a condition that must not be confounded with 



