388 THE SKIN AND ITS DISEASES. 



This is called a surfeit, from its resemblance to some eruptiors ' u u.--' skin of th« 

 human being when indigestible or unwholesome food has been taken. 'l"he surfeit is, 

 in soii.e cases, confined to the neck; but it oftener spreads over the sides, back, loins, 

 and quarters. The cause is enveloped in some obscurity. The disease most fre- 

 quently appears when the skin is irritable during or after the process of moulting, or 

 when iv sympathises with any disorder of the stomach. It has been known to follow 

 the eating of poisonous herbs or mowburnt hay, but, much oftener, it is to be traced 

 to exposure to cold when the skin was previously irritable and the horse heated by 

 exercise. It has also been attributed to the immoderate drinking of cold water when 

 the animal was hot. It is obstruction of some of the pores of the skin and swellinn 

 of the surrounding substance, either from primary atftction of the skin, or a plethoric 

 state of the system, or sympathy with the diyestive organs. 



The state of the patient will sufficiently guide the surgeon as to the course he 

 should pursue. If there is simple eruption, without any marked inflammatory action, 

 alteratives should be resorted to, and particularly those recommended for hidebound 

 in page 476. They should be given on several successive nights. The night is bet- 

 ter than the morning, because the warmth of the stable v.ill cause the antimony and 

 sulphur to act more powerfully on the skin. The horse should be warmly clothed — 

 half an hour's walking exercise should be given, an additional rug being thrown over 

 liim — such green meat as can be procured should be used in moderate quantities, and 

 the chill should be taken from the water. 



Should the eruption continue or assume a more virulent character, bleeding anit 

 aloetic physic must be had recourse to, but neither should be carried to any extreme. 

 The physic having set, the alteratives should again be had recourse to, and attention 

 should be paid to the comfort and diet of the horse. 



If the eruption, after several of these alternate appearances and disappearances, 

 should remain, and the cuticle and the hair begin extensively to peel off, a worse 

 aflection is to be feared, for surfeit is too apt to precede, or degenerate into, mange. 

 This disorder, therefore, must next be considered. 



MANGE 



Is a pimpled or vesicular eruption. After a while the vesicles break, or the cuticle 

 and tlie hair fall off, and there is, as in obstinate surfeit, a bare spot covered with 

 scurf — some fluid oozing from the skin beneath, and this changing to a scab, which 

 likewise soon peels off, and leaves a wider spot. This process is attended by consi- 

 derable itching and tenderness, and thickening of the skin, which soon becomes more 

 or less folded, or puckered. The mange generally first appears on the neck at the 

 root of the mane, and its existence may be suspected even before the blotches appear, 

 and when there is only considerable itchiness of the part, by the e?se with which the 

 short hair at the root of the mane is plucked out. From the neck it spreads upward 

 to the head, or downward to the withers and back, and occasionally extends over the 

 whole carcass of the horse. 



One cause of it, although an unfrequent one, has been stated to be neglected or 

 inveterate surfeit. Several instances are on record in which poverty of condition, and 

 general neglect of cleanliness, preceded or produced the most violent mange. A 

 remark of Mr. Blaine is very important: — "Among the truly healthy, so far as my 

 experience goes, it never arises spontaneously, but it does readily from a spontaneous 

 origin among the unhealthy." The most common cause is contagion. Amidst the 

 whole list of diseases to which the horse is exposed, there is not one more highly 

 contagious than mange. If it once gets into a stable, it spreads through it, for the 

 .■^lightest contact seems to be sufficient for the communication of this noisome com- 

 plaint. 



If the same brush or currycomb is used on all the horses, the propagation of mange 

 18 assured ; and horses feeding in the same pasture with a mangy one rarely escape, 

 from the propensity they have to nibble one another. Mange in cattle has been pro- 

 pagated to the horse, and from the horse to cattle. There are also some well-authen- 

 ticated instances of the same disease being communicated from the dog to the horse, 

 but not from the horse to the dog. 



Mange has been said to originate in want of cleanliness in the management of thi; 

 stable. The comfort and the health of the horse demand the strictest cleanliness 

 The eyes and the lungs frequently suffer from the noxious fumes cf the putrefying 



