Treatment. Serum Disease. g43 



Treatment. Acute urticaria usually heals spontaneously 

 witlim a short time and calls for no special therapeutic meas- 

 ures ; still, fomentations with cold water or friction with vinegar 

 or alcohol have a good effect. For the treatment of stine:ing 

 nettle poisoning Holterbach recommends stimulating drugs 

 (camphor) with permanganate of potash. If recurring attacks 

 are the result of acrid substances, parasites etc., these must be 



Fig. 121. Nettlerash in the doe, Fig. 122. Ihe same dog as in 121 af- 



with diffuse swelling of the skin of *^^' disappearance of the urticaria, 



the head. 



removed, while the presence of intestinal catarrh must be treat- 

 ed with aperients (neutral salts, castor oil) and disinfecting 

 applications. 



Literature. Albrecht, Monh., 1900, XI, 24.— Bartels, D. t. W., 1909 485 — 

 Bnsavome, Eec, 1908, 104.— Haag, W. f. Tk., 1907, 967.— Holterbach, D t W 

 1908, 297.— Houillier and Delannoy, J. vet., 1903, 352.— Jost, Pr. Mt., 1856-57 

 143.— Lange, S. B., 1906, 75.— Leibenger, W. f. Tk., 1907, 622.— Meeke Pr Mt ' 

 1852-53, 64.— Nicolas, Bull., 1907, 471.— Perkuhn, Z. f. Vk., 1904, 487.- Pourquier' 

 Eec, 1877, 51.— Bohr, Bull., 1906, 154; 1907, 476; Eev. gen., 1907, X, 521.— Eudolph 

 b B., 1902, 170.— Tapken, Monh., 1899, X, 166.— Torok, Hautkrankheiten, 1907.— 

 Wyssmann, Schw. A., 1905, XLVII, 34. 



Serum Disease. This phenomenon which sometimes occurs as a 

 result of serum treatment has been known in human medicine since 

 the introduction of the treatment with the diphtheria and the scarlet 

 fever serums, and has recently been noticed also in animals, for example 

 after the employment of anthrax imnuine serum in cattle and horses 

 (Kovarzik, Zinner, Alexandrescu), of Gans's polyvalent pneumonia 

 serum in two cows (Kovarzik), of "Willerding's influenza serum in 30% 

 of the inoculated horses (Bartels), and of septicidin in swine (Listo, 

 Garaguso). 



Essentially the serum disease consists in a hypersensibility (an- 

 aphylaxis) of the animal organism to heterogenous proteid sub- 

 stances. This hypersensibility may be due to the fact either that the 

 organism is especially intolerant of certain products of the dissociation 

 of albumins, which may be a normal condition (idiosyncrasy; natural 

 anaphylaxis of Detre), or that it contains certain substances which 

 cause a rapid disintegration of the ingested proteid material lead- 



