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CLASS XI. 



DISEASES OF THE SKIN. 



MANGE. 



This cutaneous affection is very common among dogs of every 

 variety, and is observed in his congeners, the fox and wolf, also : 

 it is not altogether unusual to find a dead fox so mangy, as ap- 

 parently to have been destroyed by its virulence. It has been 

 compared to itch in the human, and not without justice ; as, if I 

 am not greatly mistaken, the canine mange is capable of pro- 

 ducing the human itch : but, whether the human itch can be given 

 to dogs, is a point which my experience does not enable me to 

 determine. The canine mange is a chronic inflammation of the 

 skin, dependent, in some instances, on a morbid constitutional 

 action; it is infectious also, from maisms produced from animal 

 exhalations ; and it is notoriously contagious from personal com- 

 munication with one affected. It is not, however, so completely 

 contagious, with all its varieties, as is supposed, for I have known 

 dogs to sleep with affected ones for some time without becoming 

 mangy ; but in the majority of cases it is otherwise ; and in some 

 the predisposition to it is such, that almost simple and momentary 

 contact will produce it. The mange which is received by conta- 

 gion is more readily given to another than that which is gene- 

 rated. The uniform presence of animalculi within the psoric 

 pustules has revived the idea that it originates in the attack of 

 acari. 



Mange is also hereditary. — A bitch, lined by a mangy dog, is 

 very liable to produce mangy puppies; but the progeny of a 

 mangy bitch is certain to become affected sooner or later, and I 

 have seen puppies covered with it when a few days old. The mor- 

 bid action by which mange is generated is excited in various ways 

 and by various causes. When a number of dogs are confined 

 together, the acrid effluvia of their transpiration and urine begets 



