TREATMENT OF ECZEMATOUS ERUPTIONS. 679 



the skin inflamed and sloughed, while the dark parts were 

 unchanged. This peculiarity can scarcely be said to apply to 

 the disease as it manifests itself in this country, where colour 

 or the want of it does not affect its course and progress. I have 

 repeatedly seen it in sheep, as well as in cattle and horses, fed 

 on certain clovers, which seemed to excite the disease more by 

 being brought into contact with the skin than by any effect upon 

 the general constitution ; the eruption being confined to those 

 parts of the body which were continually touched by the 

 herbage, namely, the lips, nostrils, coronets, and pasterns. 



Treatment. — The removal of the affected animals from the 

 field containing the cause will generally be sufficient ; but should 

 surgical interference be required, the parts are to be rubbed over 

 with the zinc or lead ointment, and purgatives administered. If 

 there be much pmritis, the irritable parts are to be bathed with 

 the following lotion : — 



R Acid Hydrocyanic, . . .533. 



Aqua, §viii. 



and afterwards covered over with lard. 



Mr. Eobertson of Ellon recommends the ointment of the 

 nitrate of mercury. 



TREATMENT OF ECZEMATOUS ERUPTIONS. 



The different forms of eczema present varieties of character 

 peculiar to themselves, and these must be borne in mind when 

 they become subject to the veterinarian's care. In most instances, 

 when not induced by direct local irritation, the eruption may be 

 looked upon as a safety-valve to the system, and, consequently, 

 the discharge by wliich it is accompanied must be suppressed 

 very gradually, and not before a counter one, from the intestinal 

 mucous membrane, has been medicinally or otherwise estab- 

 lished. 



In aU cases the treatment is to be regulated by the severity of 

 the symptoms, and by the particular cause and locality of the 

 disease. When it is of constitutional origin, purgatives are to 

 be employed, which are to be succeeded by diuretics, antacid 

 stomachics, and when the disease is chronic, specific alteratives. 



Different purgatives are used, according to the animal treated : 

 for the horse, aloes ; for horned cattle, sulphate of soda or mag- 



