Diseases of the Skin, 239 



body suffer, but especially the thin skin on the inner 

 sides of the arms, thighs, and over the belly. The skin 

 is very red, and covered with vesicles or small bladders, 

 which are sometimes isolated, or otherwise running to- 

 gether form larger vesicles, which shortly burst, and 

 drying on the surface, agglutinates the hairs into tufts or 

 masses of various size. Somewhat later they decompose, 

 emitting a putrid odour. Severe irritation follows, to 

 allay which the dog bites, scratches, or tears himself 

 severely, producing sores which, in many cases, yield to 

 no treatment. This is especially the case with those 

 which occur on the loose skin in the bend of joints, a 

 chronic state being general throughout the disease. 

 Ultimately the skin assumes one or other of the following 

 forms, viz., a constant state of scurfiness with loss of hair, 

 or the skin is immensely thickened, drawn into folds 

 destitute of hair, and exhibiting ugly cracks, at the bottom 

 of which ulceration, with more or less discharge, proceeds. 

 At certain local points also, large and bare tumours of 

 similar callous substance are found, as on the elbows and 

 buttocks, states especially common to animals kept in 

 confinement and subjected to neglect. 



Treatment. — First open the bowels by a dose of the 

 castor-oil mixture ; or in the early stages of the acute 

 form reduce the dose one- third, and subsequently give 

 salines, as Epsom salts. Some prefer opium and calomel 

 in one-grain doses of each daily, a remedy seldom used 

 with safety in the hands of amateurs in medicine. Such 

 remedies secure the reduction of fever, after which tonics, 

 as iron and gentian, or the liquor arsenicalis, are indi- 

 cated, especially if debility sets in early. Special forms 

 of fever arising from the severity of the skin affection 

 may call for very active measures, as opium and calomel 

 internally, with repeated fomentations, or baths of hot 

 water containing glycerine and boracic acid, or even 

 opium. Chronic cases are not always manageable, yet 

 good may be done by repeated dressings with lunar 

 caustic, and the skin generally dressed with zinc oint- 

 ment. The disease is apt to exhibit phases of severe 

 excitement, the result of change in temperature and 



