MANGE. 379 



soon becomes more'or less folded or puckered. The mangegenerally first 

 appears on the neck, at the root of the mane, and its existence may be 

 pretty truly ascertained, even before the blotches appear, and when there 

 is only considerable itchiness of the part, by the ease with which the short 

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

 upward to the head, or downwards to the withers and back, and occa- 

 sionally 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. The more common cause is contagion. 

 Amid'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 slightest contact seems to be sufficient for the 

 communication of this noisome complaint. 



If the same brush or currycomb be used on all the horses, the propagation 

 of mange is 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 propagated to the horse, and from the horse to 

 cattk, but there is no authenticated instance of the same disease in the 

 dog being communicated to the horse. There is as much difference in the 

 character^and appearance of mange in the horse and dog, as between either 

 of them and the itch in the human subject ; and the itch has never been 

 communicated to the quadruped, nor the mange of the quadruped to the 

 human being. 



Mange has been said to originate in want of cleanliness in the manage- 

 ment of the stable. The comfort and the health of the horse demand the 

 strictest cleanliness. The eyes and the lungs frequently suffer from 

 the noxious fumes of the putrefying dung and urine ; but, in defiance of 

 common prejudice-, there is no authentic instance of mange being the 

 result. It may, however, proceed from poverty. When the animal is 

 half-starved, and the functions of digestion and the powers of the con- 

 stitution are weakened, we have seen, in the cases of hide-bound and 

 surfeit, that the skin soon sympathises, and we can imagine' that mange 

 may occasionally be produced instead of surfeit and hide-bound. Every 

 farmer has proof enough of this being the case. If a horse is turned on a 

 common, where there is scarcely sufficient herbage to satisfy his appetite, 

 or if he is placed in one of those straw-yards which, under the managernent 

 of mercenary and unfeeling men, are the very abodes of misery, the animal 

 comes up a skeleton, and he comes up mangy too. Poverty and starva- 

 tion are fruitfiil sources of mange, but it does not appear that filth has 

 much to do with it, although poverty and filth generally go hand in hand. 



The propriety of bleeding in cases of mange must depend on the con- 

 dition of the patient. If mange be the result of poverty, and the animal 

 is much debilitated, bleeding will be adding power to the cause of the dis- 

 ease. Physic, however, is indispensable. It is the first step in the progress 

 towards cure. A mercurial ball will be preferable to a common aloetic 

 one, as more certain and effectual in its operation, and the mercury having 

 probably some influence in mitigating the disease. In this, however, 

 mange in the horse resembles the itch in the human being — that medicine 

 alone will never effect a cure. There must be some local application. 

 There is this further similarity, that that which is most effectual in curing 

 this disgraceful complaint in man, must form the basis of every local ap- 

 plication as it regards the horse. Sulphur is indispensable in every 

 unguent for mange ; it is the sheet-anchor of the veterinary surgeon. 



In an early, and not very acute state of mange, one ounce of the flowers 

 of sulphur should be well rubbed down with an equal quantity of train 



