4 STUDIES OM ACAEl. 



pus-like matter exudes from the skin when firmly pressed. Dogs 

 infested with follicular mange have a characteristic odour which is 

 very foul and disgusting. This complaint can easily be confused with 

 Sarcoptic mange and also with certain fungoid aftections, but the 

 presence of the mites in great numbers is a distinguishing feature. 

 This form of mange is slow in progress and is not highly infectious — 

 in fact, it is difficult to inoculate it from one dog into another. 

 Young dogs are much more liable to be infected than older animals, 

 and it is probable that some dogs are more susceptible than others. 

 In his interesting paper on follicular mange, Nicholson Almond, 

 however, gives a few instances of infection taking place in adult dogs 

 as well as puppies. The disease is more frequently met with in 

 short-haired dogs, and sometimes occurs in a very typical form in bull 

 terriers. As this kind of mange is very difficult to cure it is advisable 

 to destroy infected animals unless of special value. 



Cases in which human beings have been infected with skin-disease 

 supposed to be set up by D. canis have been recorded by Ziirn, Babes, 

 and Lewandowsky, but these instances must be regarded as doubtful. 

 W. H. Scott says in his paper on mange, " Perhaps I may here mention 

 that a few days after examining three bull puppies [infected with the 

 disease] I had developed on my own neck an erythematous patch about 

 the size of a shilling, which was slightly irritable ; a crop of papules 

 formed, followed by pustules. A scraping of this patch revealed seven 

 follicular acari, identical in shape and detail to those found on the dog." 

 The species of Bemodex parasitic on human beings and that found on 

 the dog resemble one another very closely, so that it would be easy to 

 mistake one for the other. In any case such instances are rare, and 

 Neumann says that persons attending to dogs suffering from demodectic 

 mange do not contract the complaint, even if no precautions are taken. 

 Moreover, several experimenters have attempted to transmit this 

 parasite from dogs to human beings without result. 



A large number of antiparasitical substances have been tried for the 

 cure of follicular mange of the dog, but usually with slight success. As 

 Megnin has pointed out, it is difficult to tliink of a lotion harmless 

 to the skin yet poisonous to the mites and at the same time capable of 

 penetrating into the depths of the hair-follicles and sebaceous glands. 



The treatment of follicular mange suggested by Gmeiner is as 

 follows: — The hair of the affected parts and the skin round them 

 is cut short and the places then bathed with a ^-1 per cent, solution of 

 Potassium Sulphide and afterwards treated with the following lotion : 



