308 THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 



great change. The digestive organs have to pick their aliment 

 out of a new arrangement of the elements which support animal 

 life, and this new work is refreshing. There is more or possibly 

 less defecation required than before ; there is more or it may be 

 less work given to the kidneys than before. Torpid organs are 

 aroused, wearied organs find repose, blood is supplied with less 

 nervous exhaustion, and the brain participates in the relief and 

 vigor of the whole system. Under these circumstances local 

 disease often finds a spontaneous remedy either in the improved 

 condition of the circulating fluids or in the circulation itself, and 

 the whole mystery of this dietetic cure is nothing but the relief 

 of change — just such a relief as is afforded by change of air, 

 change of habits, change of country, or of pursuits. The want 

 of change in diet is obviously a frequent cause of disease in the 

 skin, where it occurs in large boarding schools, where the diet is 

 too simple, plain, restricted, and unvarying, to maintain the sys- 

 tem in vigorous health for a long time together. Accordingly a 

 change of diet — the more sudden and violent the better — will gen- 

 erally remove the most of the difficulties in the way of recovery ; 

 and if to this be added change of air and change of habits, the 

 muscles of the lower extremities being duly called into exercise 

 as well as of the upper, the mysteries of the case are explained, 

 the inveteracy of the disease is destroyed, and it yields to ordi- 

 nary treatment, or even to the spontaneous efforts of the system 

 without any medical treatment whatever." 



FALLING OFF OF THE HAIR. — {Alopecia.) 



There are various forms of eruptive diseases which induce a 

 falling off of the hair ; and these external eruptions which ap- 

 pear on the skin are not always the disease, the real enemy to 

 be overcome, but are oftentimes the manifestations — products 

 or symptoms — of some internal affection. So soon as the erup- 

 tive disease extends to the hair bulbs, a sort of morbid action 

 commences within them, which loosens the hair, and it falls off. 



At times we find small vesicles which are elevated above the 

 skin, often in very considerable numbers ; they pour out on the 

 skin a fluid, which, by the process of evaporation, forms crusts ; 



