114 RURAL VETERINARY SECRETS 



tion of this central mass or core, which is bathed in pus and slowly 

 separated from surrounding parts serve to distinguish the boil alike 

 from the pustule, from the farcy bud, and form a superficial abscess. 



TREATMENT 



To treat very painful boils a free incision ^^•itll a lancet in two 

 directions, followed by a dressing with one-half an ounce carbolic 

 acid in a pint of water, bound on with cotton woo! or lint, may cut 

 them short. The more common course is to apply a warm poultice 

 of linseed meal or wheat bran, and renew daily until the center of 

 the boil softens, when it should be lanced and the core pressed out. 



If the boil is smeared with Elk's Desicant and a poultice put 

 over it, the formation of matter and separation of the core is often 

 hastened. A mixture of sugar and soap laid on the boil is equally 

 good. Cleanliness of the skin and the avoidance of all causes of 

 irritation are important items, and ■ a teaspoonful of Sanguitone 

 Compound once or twice a day will sometimes assist in warding ofif 

 a new crop. 



CONGESTION (With small Pimples or Papules) 



In this affection there is the general blush, heat, etc., of 

 erythema, together with a crop of elevations from the size of a poppy 

 seed to a coffee bean, visible when the hair is reversed or to be felt 

 with the finger where the hair is scanty. In white skins they vary 

 from the palest to the darkest red. All do not retain the papular 

 type, but some go on to form blisters (eczema, bullae) as pustules, 

 or dry up into scales, or break out into open sores, or extend into 

 larger swelling (tubercles). The majority, however, remaining as 

 pimples, characterize the disease. When very itchy the rubbing 

 breaks them open, ,'ind the resulting sores hide the true nature of 

 the eruptions. 



The general and local causes may be the same as for erythema, 

 and in the same subject one portion of the skin may have simple 

 congestion and another adjacent papules. As the inflammatory ac- 

 tion is more pronounced, so the irritation and itching arc usually 

 greater, the animal rubbing and biting himself severely. This itch- 

 ing is especially severe in the forms which attack the roots of the 



