

MANGE. 



245 



the hospital of St. Louis, pretended to have found some of them. They 

 were put into the hands of M. Raspail, of Paris, who proved that they 

 were nothing more than the common cheese mites ; and substituted by 

 Gales for those seen by Bonomo. 



Professor Her twig 1 , of Berlin, lias given a graphic sketch of these in- 

 sects (Veterinarian, vol. xi. pp. 373, 489). 



Mr. Holthouse states that, "placed on the skin of a healthy individual, 

 they excite a disease in the part to which they were confined, having all 

 the characters of scabies ; that insects taken from mangy sheep, horses, 

 and dogs, and transplanted to healthy individuals of the same species, pro- 

 duce in them a disease analogous to that in the animals from which they 

 were taken ; and that there are too many well-attested cases on record to 

 permit us to doubt of scabies having been communicated from animals to 

 man. 



Mange may in some degree be considered as an hereditary disease. A 

 mangy dog is liable to produce mangy puppies, and the progeny of a 

 mangy bitch will certainly become affected sooner or later. In many 

 cases a propensity to the disease will be speedily produced. If the puppies 

 are numerous, and confined in close situations, the effluvia of their tran- 

 spiration and faecal discharges will often be productive of mange very diffi- 

 cult to be removed. Close confinement, salted food, and little exercise, are 

 frequent causes of mange. 



The Scabby Mange is a frequent form which this disease assumes. It 

 assumes a pustular and scabby form in the red mange, particularly in 

 white-haired dogs, when there is much and painful inflammation. A pecu- 

 liar eruption, termed surfeit, which resembles mange, is sometimes the 

 consequence of exposure to cold after a hot sultry day. Large blotches 

 appear, from which the hair falls and leaves the skin bare and rough. Acute 

 mange sometimes takes on the character of erysipelas ; at other times there 

 is considerable inflammation. The animal exhibits heat and restlessness, and 

 ulcerations of different kinds appear in various parts, superficial but ex- 

 tensive. Bleeding, aperient and cooling medicines are indicated, and also 

 applications of the subacetate of lead, or spermaceti ointment. A weak 

 infusion of tobacco may be resorted to when other things fail, but it must 

 be used with much caution. The same may be said of all mercurial pre- 

 parations. The tanner's pit has little efficacy, except in slight cases. 

 Slight bleedings may be serviceable, and especially in full habits ; setons 

 may be resorted to in obstinate cases. A change in the mode of feeding 

 will often be useful. Mild purgatives, and especially Epsom salts, are 

 often beneficial, and also mercurial alteratives, as ^Ethiop's mineral 

 with cream of tartar and nitre. The external applications require con- 

 siderable caution. If mercury is used, care must be taken that the dog does 

 not lick it. The diarrhosa produced by mercury often has a fatal effect. 



Unguents are useful, but considerable care must be taken in their appli- 

 cation. They must be applied to the actual skin, not over the hair. In 

 o?d and bad cases much time and patience will be requisite. Mr. Elaine 

 had a favourite setter who had virulent mange five years. He was ordered 

 to be dressed every day, or every second day, before the disease was com- 

 pletely conquered. 



Cutaneous affections have lately been prevalent to an extent altogether 

 unprecedented on this and on the other side of the channel. In the latter 

 cart of 1843 the disease assumed a character which had not been known 



