270 DISEASES OF THE SKIN. 



it washed with soft soap, and that rendered it compara- 

 tively free from greasiness : but it is now but three days 

 since the washing, and I find it becoming greasy again. A 

 week afterwards I (after giving a fourth dose of physic) 

 had the animal washed with water, in which an alkali was 

 dissolved. 



SADDLE SCALD. 



Thus I would designate that excoriation of the back, which 

 arises from acridity of the perspiration operating upon a 

 skin possessed of unusual irritability. The friction of the 

 saddle (from its improperly fitting, or being insufficiently 

 girthed) has probably also something to do with its produc- 

 tion. Some of these cases, either because the same irritant 

 is repeated, or because we cannot get rid of the irritable 

 condition of the skin, are exceeding troublesome, and have 

 proved difficult to cure. At first, only some slight, patchy 

 excoriation, or rather depilation, is observed ; should, however, 

 the saddle continue to be worn, the entire sides of the back 

 — at least those parts covered by the flaps — will lose their 

 hair and cuticle, presenting a sheet of ulcerated cutis, com- 

 monly more on one side than the other. This forms one of 

 those vexatious cases which lay a horse up without his 

 being either actually sick or lame ; for lay them up you 

 must, if you would cure the disease. And no sooner will 

 you have cured it, than, (unless some alteration be made 

 in the saddle,) the first time the horse is ridden, it will 

 return. Lining the flaps with linen in place of the serge : 

 altering the situation or position of the flaps ; improving the 

 fit of the saddle, and rendering it less moveable upon the 

 back, are a few of the necessary remedies. The medical 

 means are, bleeding, purging, and various local applications ; 

 none being better, in my opinion, than those recommended 

 for mangy affections. One horse in our regiment had such 

 continual and violent recurrences of this affection, as disabled 

 it, after being ridden once or twice during hot weather, for 



