AILMENTS AND ILLNESSES 65 



paraffin, mercurial ointment, or -tar (otherwise creosote) 

 to delicate toys. Mercurial dressings, in all cases, are 

 rank poison, the absorption of the drug into the system 

 having fatal effects for the future. 



Follicular mange, in which the insect causing the 

 trouble burrows deep, is a horrible disease, about the 

 worst a dog can have, and here skilled veterinary assist- 

 ance cannot be dispensed with. But it is safe for the 

 amateur, in all cases of commencing skin trouble, where 

 there is no smell and the bare patches do not spread 

 rapidly, to use the phenyl lotion or sulphur or Kanofelin 

 ointment, according to the state of the skin, and to begin 

 the more important internal treatment by a complete 

 change of diet. 



A very dry or confined diet, certain meals, as oatmeal 

 or Indian corn meals, either in biscuits or otherwise ; 

 too little food ; more rarely too much ; absence of meat 

 from the dietary, or too little of it ; as before, but very 

 rarely too much these are all incentives to skin trouble, 

 while heredity has much to say to a tendency thereto. 



A dog which has not been having much meat, but 

 has been chiefly fed on dog biscuit, may, on the appear- 

 ance of skin irritation, be given plenty of good, under- 

 done meat roast mutton, sheep's head, and bullock's 

 heart, all being very suitable. In no case of skin disease 

 should either oatmeal or Indian corn be given ; and sea 

 air should be avoided, as it is always aggravating to 

 skin troubles. Tripe is nourishing and very digestible, 

 and fresh fish suits most of the invalids very well. 

 Together with the entire change of diet the hours for 

 meals need not, of course, be altered a course of iron 

 and cod liver oil is always well worth trying. Per- 

 sonally, I pin my faith to the following method, which 

 I have known most successful in difficult cases, and 

 which, as I can say of the other remedies advised in 

 this little book, can do no harm. Powerful drugs are 

 often a source of danger in inexperienced hands, and a 

 good many of the medicines one sees advised are, so 

 to speak, extremely speculative, 



5 



