14 BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



feel. In some chronic diseased conditions and in fever, the skin 

 becomes dry. In this case the hair has a harsh feel that is quite dif- 

 ferent from the condition observed in health, and from the fact of its 

 being so dry the individual hairs do not adhere to one another, thoy 

 stand apart, and the animal has what is known as '"a staring coat.'' 

 When, during a fever, sweating occurs, it is usualh' an indication that 

 the crisis is passed. Sometimes sweating is an indication of pain. A 

 horse with tetanus or azoturia sweats profusely Horses sweat 

 freely when there is a serious impediment to respiration; the}^ sweat 

 under excitement, and, of course, from the well-known physiological 

 causes of heat and work. Local sweating, or sweating of a restricted 

 area of the body, denotes some kind of nerve interference. 



Swellings of the skin usuall}^ come from w^ounds or other external 

 causes and have no special connection with the diagnosis of intei-nal 

 diseases. There are, however, a number of conditions in which the 

 swelling of the skin is a symptom of a derangement of some other part 

 of the body. For example, there is the well-known "stocking," or 

 swelling of the legs about the fetlock joints, in influenza. There is 

 the soft swelling of the hind legs that occurs so often in draft horses 

 when standing still and that comes from previous inllammation (lym- 

 phangitis) or from iusufficieiit heart power. Dropsy, or edema of the 

 skin, ma}^ occur beneath the chest or abdomen from heart insulE- 

 ciency or from chronic collection of fluid in the chest or abdomen 

 (hydrothorax, ascites, or anemia). In anasarca or purpura hemor- 

 rhagica large soft swellings appear on anj^ part of the skin, but 

 usually on the legs, side of the bodj", and about the head. 



Gas collects under the skin in some instances. This comes from a 

 local inoculation with an organism which produces a fermentation 

 beneath the skin and causes the liberation of gas which inflates the 

 skin, or the gas maj^ be air that enters through a wound penetrating 

 some air-containing organ, as the lungs. The condition here described 

 is known as emi)hyseina. Emphj^sema may follow the fracture of a 

 rib when the end of a bone is forced inward and caused to penetrate 

 the lung, or it may occur, when, as a result of an ulcerating process, 

 an organ contiiining air is perforated. This accident is more common 

 in cattle than it is in horses. Emphysema is recognize d by the fact 

 that the swelling that it causes is not hot or sensitive on pressure. It 

 emits a peculiar crackling sound when it is stroked or pressed upon. 



Wounds of the skin may be of importance in the diagnosis of 

 internal disease. Wounds over the bony prominence, as the point 

 of the hip, the point of the shoulder, and the greatest convexity of 

 the ribs, occurs when a horse is unable to stand for a long time and, 

 through continually lying upon his side, has shut off the circulation 

 to the portion of the skin that covers parts of the body that carry the 

 greatest weight, and in this way has caused them to mortify. Little, 



