WARTS VERMIN. 419 



WARTS. 



These are occasionally found on all parts of the horse. There 

 are some caustics available, but frequently they must be removed 

 by an operation. If the root is very small, it may be snipped 

 asunder, close to the skin, with a pair of scissors, and touched 

 with the lunar caustic. If the pedicle or stem is somewhat larger, 

 a ligature of waxed silk should be passed firmly round it, and tight- 

 ened every day. The source of nutriment being thus removed, the 

 tumor will, in a short time, die and drop off. If the warts are large, 

 or in considerable clusters, it will be necessary to cast the horse, 

 in order to cut them off close to the skin : the root should then 

 be seared with a red-hot iron. Unless these precautions are used, 

 the warts will speedily sprout again. 



VERMIN. 



Both the biped and the quadruped are subject to the visitation 

 of insects that fasten on the skin, and are a constant nuisance 

 from the itchiness which they occasion. If the horse, after being 

 turned out for the winter, is taken up in the spring long and rough 

 in his coat, and poor in condition, and with evident hide-bound, he 

 will almost invariably be afflicted with vermin. 



In our present imperfect acquaintance with natural history, it 

 IS difficult to account for the appearance of certain insects, and of 

 diose alone, on the integument of one animal, while others of an 

 altogether different character are Ibund on its neighbor. Each 

 one has a tormentor peculiar to itself. 



The vermin of the horse is destroyed by an infusion of tobacco 

 or a solution of corrosive sublimate, the latter requiring the great- 

 est caution. The skin being once cleansed of them, an attention 

 to cleanliness will prevent their reappearance. 



of mercurial physic requires extreme caution in this disease. We h:'ve 

 known horses very low in condition killed by this means, and we doubt tne 

 necessity of the purge. Topical treatment is the principal remedy, and it i-* 

 also well to administer sulphur internally at the same time. 



There is a disease very much resembling the mange, which we occasionally 

 meet with. The horse is affected with the most violent itching, and the 

 hair is often rubbed off, but the skin does not become wrinkled, as in 

 mange. Though this disease often appears to yield to the same topical 

 treatment as the mange, yet, in some instances, it is incurable, and continue' 

 tlirough life. 



