CHAPTER XXXYIII. 



DISEASES OF THE SKIN — continued. 



DEFINITION — DIVISION — VARIOUS FORMS OF ECZEMA — SIMPLEX — RUB- 

 RUM LICHEN IMPETIGINODES ACUTE AND CHRONIC GREASE 



ELEPHANTIASIS CRUSTA LABIALIS TREATMENT OF ECZEMATOUS 



ERUPTIONS — EFFECTS OF CARBOLIC ACID ON THE DOG. 



ECZEMATOUS INFLAMMATIONS. 



The majority of skin diseases, particularly in the horse, are due 

 to the expression of some form of eczema ; indeed, we may look 

 upon it as the commonest skin disease. 



Eczema, as defined by Willan and Bateman, is " an eruption 

 of minute vesicles, not contagious, crowded together, and which, 

 from the absorption of the fluid they contain, form into thin 

 flakes." There is first an erythematous state of the skin, with 

 heat, tingling, and itching, soon followed by the formation of 

 vesicles ; and the elementary lesions of the skin in eczema may 

 be divided as follows : — (1), An erythematous condition of the 

 skin ; (2), vesicles ; (3), pustules ; (4), - papules ; (5), fissures ; 

 (6), a mixture of several or of all these lesions. 



The vesicles, when they occur, are usually developed at the 

 orifices of the cutaneous follicles, are easily ruptured, and dis- 

 charge an albuminous alkaline fluid, which is glutinous and 

 irritating to the skin. When the vesicles are not ruptured, they 

 terminate by absorption of the fluid ; but the disease does not 

 often come to an end with the drying up of one crop of vesicles. 

 More commonly, the eruption is successive, and crop after crop 

 of vesicles is formed ; or the surface, on which they first 

 appeared, remains red and raw, and continues to discharge a 



