300 DADDS VETERINARY MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 



was C'ffered by Government to Professor Papa, and many persona 

 having affected animals were requested to permit their inspection, 

 and, indeed, threatened with a fine if they did not. Papa saw 

 about three hundred horses and mules affected. The disease ap- 

 peared in circular patches of furfuraceous scales, with grayish- 

 white scabs. These patches had usually well-defined margins, 

 about the size of a dollar or five-shilling piece. Usually they 

 were isolated, but at other times they were confluent, or running 

 together in groups. The head, neck, withers, shoulders, and loins 

 were the parts chiefly affected. More rarely the upper portion of 

 the extremities, and never on the lower part of the limbs, chesty 

 or belly. The malady commences with a violent itching, and an 

 eruption in small circumscribed points, about the size of a lentil, 

 is witnessed. The scabs form, with the exudation drying and 

 entangling cuticle and hairs. In the vicinity of the first, other 

 eruptive spots appeared, w^hich, M'idening, became confluent and 

 run into one another, especially where the skin is folded and ani- 

 mals have a chance of rubbing themselves. A scab forms on the 

 sore surface, and the surface beneath it is red and tumefied, but in 

 a little time desquamation occurs. A very careful microscopical 

 examination failed to indicate the existence of any acari. 



The disease is contagious, and Papa says all those who come 

 more or less in contact with herpetic horses or mules, and espe- 

 cially the conductors of the same, were covered on the arms, legs, 

 chest, and face with pruriginous eruptions, limited and circum- 

 scribed, sometimes isolated, occasionally confluent, in the form 

 of red patches covered with papulse and vesicles, which ber^ome 

 iucrusted with brownish-yellow scabs, beneath which purulent 

 deposits formed. In consequence of the violent pruritis attending 

 this disease, it was believed to be scabies or itch by the people^ 

 and, though in many houses individuals were affected, they were 

 ashamed to confess it, and it was with great difficulty that Papa 

 collected information on the subject; but, having gained confidence 

 on the lattei, the people more freely related their cases to him. 

 The first to be affected were those intrusted with dressing the dis- 

 eased animals. The parts first attacked were the articular regions 

 about the forearm, arm, face, and rarely the lower limbs. 



Papa describes one of many cases of direct contagion. It oc- 

 curred in a lad of sixteen, who had jumped on the bare back of an 

 affected liorse, to take it to a watering-place. Two days afterward, 



