GANGRENOUS ERYSIPELAS LICE. 137 



subject, have their seat in the skin : it were a point well worthy of 

 study to inquire into the reason of this fact, but as the present work 

 is devoted to practice rather than theory, we must leave it to abler 

 hands, and pass onwards to a consideration of some of the most 

 prevalent diseases of the skin in swine. 



GANGRENOUS ERYSIPELAS. 



This disease, which is frequently spoken of by the ancient writers, 

 as prevailing to a greater or less extent, and often almost as an epi- 

 demic among sheep and swine, is now of rare occurrence. Poulet 

 thus describes the symptoms : 



"The first of these, which last some five or six days, are uneasi- 

 ness, inquietude, depression, loss of appetite, and inertness. About 

 the seventh or eighth day these gradually increase in intensity ; the 

 limbs totter, the body is alternately hot and cold, the ears droop 

 and are cold, the head appears heavy, the tongue is discolored, the 

 breath fetid, a thick mucus flows from the nostrils, and the whole of 

 the skin becomes tinged with an erysipelatous redness, which is 

 most evident under the belly ; the animal utters almost incessant 

 screams of pain. This inflammatory state of the integuments 

 rapidly merges into decided gangrene, and the whole of the diseased 

 surface becomes of a livid blue or violet hue. The skin is first 

 covered with blisters containing a thin reddish watery fluid ; and 

 as these break, the gangrenous, dark colored scabs are formed. The 

 disease is, however, by ro means of so fatal a character in swine, as 

 it is in sheep, probably from the former being the stronger animals. 

 A little blood should be taken from the ears, once at any rate, and 

 the bleeding should be repeated if it appears at all necessary. A 

 dose or two of Epsom salts, cooling drinks slightly acidulated, and 

 strict attention to diet and cleanliness, are generally all that will be 

 requisite. Should the skin appear to be very irritable, a little sweet oil 

 may be rubbed over it, or some sulphur made into a kind of oint- 

 ment with sweet oil or palm oil ; but local applications are not 

 generally requisite." 



Exposure to great heat t>r cold, or any sudden transition from 

 one extreme of temperature to another, are supposed by some 

 authors to be the causes of this disease ; while others, and we think 

 with justice, attribute it to unwholesome or putrid food, and to gene- 

 ral inattention and neglect. 



LICE. 



Pigs, when allowed to wallow in the mire, and to dwell in filthy 

 styes, are very apt to engender these disgusting vermin, which eat 

 into the skin and render it scabb;, and ulcerated, and by the irrita* 



