ECZEMA SBIPLEX. 669 



is very common in Edinburgh, and most usually attacks dray 

 and farm horses. In the winter months it attacks horses fed 

 upon boiled food, meal-seeds (husks of oats), or coarse straw. 

 In the summer, horses well cared for are subject to it when 

 first put on green food, and almost invariably an animal which 

 has suffered from one attack is liable to a recurrence. 



In such instances eczema occurs symptomatically as a conse- 

 quence of some constitutional disturbance. In other cases, the 

 disease is induced by the direct application of irritants, heat, 

 cold, strong ointments of sulphur, tar, and blisters. 



It may attack several animals at the same establishment, and 

 this may lead one to suppose that it is true scabies ; but it is 

 not so, and the reason why several animals are thus attacked 

 is explainable by the fact that they are all partaking of the 

 same kind of food, and subjected to the same treatment in 

 other ways. 



This form of eczema is generally considered to be true conta- 

 gious mange ; but I am satisfied, from extensive opportunities of 

 carefully noting the disorder, that it is not so ; and although it 

 may, and often does, attack a number of animals simultaneously, 

 it is generally confined to a few in the same stud, and these 

 will suffer for months without communicating the disease to 

 others. If the history of an outbreak amongst a number be 

 inquired into, it will usually be found that there has been a 

 sudden change of diet. 



(2.) ECZEMA EUBRUM, 



The red mange of dogs, in which there is an eruption (due to a 

 parasite, see Scabies) of vesicles on a very red inflamed skin ; 

 the redness is best seen in white dogs. It is usually confined 

 to the thighs, belly, and chest. In chronic cases the skin be- 

 comes tumefied and corrugated at the parts affected. 



Mr. PercivaU, in his work on the effects of medicines, says 

 that ''a form of eczema similar to the red mange is induced 

 by the incautious apphcation of mercurial ointment to the skin, 

 accompanied by loss of appetite, salivation, closure of the eye- 

 lids, great dulness, foetid exhalations from the skin and mouth, 

 and sometimes death." 



A considerable number of cases of this form of eczema has 



