268 DISEASES OF THE SKIN. 



horses that have recently come from poor to good keep, are 

 the ordmary subjects of its attacks ; and spring is the season 

 in which we mostly observe it. I have known horses have 

 it annually on the approach of warm weather. Sometimes, 

 it will break out after violent exercise, or after too copious a 

 draught of cold water while heated. It is said to be an occa- 

 sional consequence of indigestion, or of unwholesome food. 



The Treatment must relieve plethora, and remove any 

 inflammatory disposition in the system : the eruption itself 

 should also be encouraged. In cases of simple eruption, 

 nothing more is required than the substitution of a mash 

 for a corn diet ; green-meat, if it can be procured, for hay ; 

 chilled water ; warm clothing and bandages ; with additional 

 exercise. Should the eruption evince a permanent charac- 

 ter, or should it show a disposition to relapse, it may be 

 requisite to purge moderately; and this evacuation may be 

 followed by febrifuges mingled with the animal's mashes. As 

 Hurtrel d^Arboval remarks, when the lumps are bursting 

 and discharging, the time for evacuations has gone by. We 

 may then be content with cooling diet, and sponging the 

 surface with warm water : though, " should the skin require 

 excitement, frictions with camphorated spirits^^ are recom- 

 mended. 



Ulcerative Surfeit. — There is yet another — though a 

 comparatively rare — form of surfeit or eruption, the ulcera- 

 tive. The skin in certain parts of the body becomes pimply 

 or pustulous, and at the same time so tender to the least 

 pressure, that the animal shrinks even when the place is but 

 touched. These pimples or pustules before long burst, and 

 discharge a glutinous, serous kind of fluid, which binds 

 and mats the hair together in patches. At length, the skin 

 cracks around these agglutinations ; suppuration supervenes 

 in the cracks, and the isolated portions of skin are by 

 a process of ulceration, gradually cast off", leaving exposed 

 deep, ragged, pale ulcers. The eruption, I think, commonly 

 commences on the head; and after healing up there, often 

 attacks some other part of the body — the back, croup, &c. 

 It attacks horses full of gross condition, and at the spring 



