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trils so thickened that breathing becomes difficult and snuffling. It 

 may be attended by constii)ation or diarrhea, or by colicky paius. 

 The eruption is sudden, the whole skin being sometimes covered in a 

 few hours, and it may disappear with equal rapidity or persist for six 

 or eight days. 



Treatment. — This consists in clearing out the bowels by 5 drams Bar- 

 badoes aloes, or 1 pound Glauber's salts, and follow the operation of 

 these by daily doses of one-half ounce powdered gentian and 1 ounce 

 Glauber's salts. A weak solution of alum may be applied to the swel- 

 lings. 



SCALY SKIN DISEASE — PITYRIASIS. 



This affection is characterized by an excessive production and de- 

 tacbmeut of dry scales from the surface of the skin (dandruff). It is 

 usually dependent on some fault in digestion, and an imperfect secre- 

 tion from the sebaceous glands, and is most common in old horses with 

 spare habit of body. Williams attributes it to food rich in saccharine 

 matter (carrots, turnips), and the excretion by the skin of oxalic acid. 

 He has found it in horses irregularly worked and well fed, and ad- 

 vises the administration of pitch for a length of time, and the avoidance 

 of .saccharine food. Otherwise the horse may take a laxative followed 

 by dram doses of carbonate of potash, and the affected parts may be 

 bathed with soft tepid water and smeared with an ointment made with 

 vaseline and suliihur. In obstinate cases sulphur may be given daily 

 in the food. 



NERVOUS IRRITATION OF THE SKIN— PRURITUS. 



This is seen in horses fed to excess on grain and hay, kept in close 

 stables, and worked irregularly. Though most common in summer it 

 is often severe in hot, close stables in winter. Pimples, vesicles, and 

 abrfisions may result, but as the itching is quite as severe on other 

 parts of. the skin, these may be the lesult of scratching merely. It is 

 especially common and inveterate about the roots of the mane and 

 tail'. 



Treatment consistsin a purgative (Glauber's salts, I pound), restricted, 

 laxative diet, and a wash of water slightly soured with oil of vitriol and 

 rendered sweet by carbolic acid. If obstinate, give daily 1 ounce of 

 sulphur and 20 grains nux vomica. If the acid lotion fails, 2 drams 

 carbonate of potash and 2 grains of cyanide of potassium in a quart of 

 water will sometimes benefit. If due to pin worms in the rectum, the 

 itching of the tail may be remedied by an occasional injection of a quart 

 of water in which chips of quassia wood have been steeped for twelve 

 hours. 



