336 DISEASES OF CATTLE. 



ness of the skin, where it is movable and painless. They are generally 

 found within the ear or at its base, although they may form on any 

 part of the body. Usually they have a small opening, from which a 

 thick, cheesy matter can be squeezed out. The rational treatment is 

 to dissect them out. 



Sebaceous cysts appear not unlike the former. They are formed by a 

 dilatation of the hair follicle and sebaceous duct within the skin, and 

 contain a gray or yellowish sebaceous mass. The tumor may attain 

 the size of a cherry-stone or a walnut. Generally they are round, 

 movable, and painless, soft or doughy in consistency, and covered with 

 skin and hair. They develop slowly. The best treatment is to dissect 

 out the sac with contents entire. 



VERRUCA WARTS. 



Cattle are affected with two varieties of warts. One, the verruca 

 vulgaris, is composed of a cluster of enlarged papilla, covered with a 

 thickened epidermis, the number of papilla determining the breadth 

 and their length its height. They are generally circular in figure, 

 slightly roughened on the surface, and spring from the skin by a broad 

 base. Occasionally large numbers of very thin, long, pedunculated 

 warts grow from the skin of the ear, lips, about the eyes, and vulva. 

 Another variety, the verruca acuminata^ sometimes erroneously denomi- 

 nated epithelial cancers, are irregularly shaped elevations, tufted, or 

 club-shaped, occasionally existing as thick, short, fleshy excrescences, 

 giving the growth the appearance of granulation tissue. Their color 

 is red or purplish, and oftentimes by friction they become raw and 

 bleeding, emitting then a very offensive odor. They usually grow iu 

 clusters and their development is rapid. I once treated a two-year-old 

 steer in which the back part of both forelegs were covered with these 

 excrescences, some as large as a goose-egg. Many of them presented 

 a raw, "bleeding surface; others had a perfectly smooth surface, devoid 

 of hair. % 



Causes. An abnormal nutrition of the skin, determined by increased 

 energy of growth operating upon a healthy skin; at other times upon 

 a weak or impoverished skin. 



Treatment. When they are small and pedunculated they may be 

 snipped off with shears, and the stump touched with nitrate of silver. 

 When they are broad and flattened they can be dissected out, and the 

 wound cauterized, if necessary. If they are large and very vascular 

 they may be ligated, one by one, by taking a strong cord and tying it 

 as firmly around the base as possible. They will then shrivel, die, and 

 drop off. If there is a tendency to grow again apply a red-hot iron, or 

 nitric acid with a glass rod. 



KELIS. 



Kelis is an irregularly-shaped flat tumor of the skin, resulting from 

 hypertrophy increased growth of the fibrous tissue of the corium, pro- 

 ducing absorption of the papillary layer. 



