390 THE HORSE. 



the side of the neck, just at the edges of the mane, and on the 

 insides cf the quarters near the root of the tail. From these 

 parts the eruption extends along the back and down the sides, 

 seldom involving the extremities excepting in very confirmed 

 cases. After a time the hair almost entirely falls off, leaving the 

 Bkin at first bare and smooth, with a few small red pimples scat- 

 tered over it, each of whieh contains an acarus, and these are con- 

 nected by furrows, along which the acari have worked their way 

 to their present habitation. In process of time the pimples 

 increase in number and size, and from them a matter exudes 

 which hardens into a scab, beneath which, on examination, 

 several acari may readily be ^en, moving their legs like mites in 

 a cheese, to which they are closely allied. At first the mangy 

 horse may keep his health, but after a time the constant irritation 

 makes him feverish ; he loses flesh, and becomes a most miserable 

 object; but such cases of neglect are happily rare in the prepent 

 day. The treatment must be addressed to the destruction o^ the 

 life of the acarus, which, as in the human subject, is rapidly 

 destroyed by sulphur, turpentine, arsenic, hellebore, and corrosive 

 sublimate. Some of these drugs are, however, objectionable, 

 from being poisonous to the horse, as well as to the parasite which 

 preys upon him, and they are, therefore, not to be employed 

 without great and urgent necessity, in consequence of the failure 

 of milder remedies. The following recipes may be relied on as 

 perfectly efficacious, the former being sufficient in mild cases, and 

 the latter being strong enough in any. 



1. Take of Common Sulphur 6 oz. 



Sperm or Train Oil .... 1 pint. 

 Spirit of Turpentine .... 3 oz. 

 Mix and rub well into the skin with a flannel, or in preference with a 

 painter's brush. 



2. Take of Compound Sulphur Ointment . . 8 oz. 



Train or Sperm Oil 1 pint. 



Spirit of Turpentine 3 oz. 



Mix and use as above. 



One or other of the above dressings should be well rubbed in 

 every third day for at least three or four weeks in bad cases, ,'ind 

 two in trifling ones, when the inflammation resulting from the 

 acari and also from the application may be allowed to subside in 

 the tape that all the parasites are killed, in which cas« the erup- 

 tion disappears, but the hair does not always come on again aa 

 thickly as ever. All the stable fittings around the stall or box in 

 which the horse has been standing should be thoroughly washed 

 over with a solution of corrosive sublimate, made as follows : — 



