200 KENNEL DISEASES. 
finger tips, to encourage emptying. This should occur in the course of a minute 
under skilful manipulation. 
If these directions are carefully followed, syringing can do no harm, but any 
departure from them might be hazardous; and even at best in unskilled hands 
it is seldom wholly satisfactory unless used for the removal of some foreign 
body which has got into the ear. Therefore, use a syringe no more than seems 
absolutely necessary. 
If the ear passage appears inflamed and the shaking of the head and the 
flapping of the ears are of recent occurrence, it may be accepted that the trouble 
is acute, provided no very bad odor can be detected. 
In such cases, after using a syringe, and thus making sure that the passage 
is free and clean, it will be well to pour into it, from a teaspoon, a few drops of a 
solution of borax, ten grains, in camphor water, one ounce; and repeat the appli- 
cation every five or six hours if improvement is noted. 
If the case is a mild one and the foregoing does not speedily act well, a solu- 
tion of the acetate of lead, eight grains, and water, four ounces, should be sub- 
stituted; and a small quantity be dropped into the ear three or four times daily. 
These solutions are unlikely to have much effect except in mild cases, and in 
others severe, one composed as follows should be used: Goulard’s extract of 
lead, laudanum, and the fluid extract of hamamelis, of each two drachms ; water, 
one-half ounce. The ear should be filled with it twice daily. 
If this in turn fails to effect a cure in the course of two weeks, it should be 
discontinued for a week, and during that time a 3 per cent solution of carbolic 
acid and glycerin should be used instead; a few drops of it, warmed, being 
dropped into the ear, two or three times daily. 
Simple inflammation of the ear passage usually disappears promptly under 
the foregoing methods of treatment, but if in any case recovery is not effected it 
will be safe to assume that the trouble is more serious than a simple acute 
inflammation. 
The most discouraging sign is a highly offensive odor. Though this may be 
present when the disease is confined to the external ear, in which case it is 
usually due to ulceration in the walls of the passage, more often the drum mem- 
brane has been ruptured and the trouble is in the inner ear. 
In cases in which the odor is manifested and does not disappear in the course 
of a week under proper treatment, the outlook is doubtful. They are sure to 
prove very obstinate and tedious, and only rarely will a cure be effected. 
The first step in the way of treatment may properly be a thorough syringing, 
the instrument being used as already advised. After that a solution of the per- 
oxide of hydrogen must be largely relied on. 
In a coffeecupful of water should be first dissolved one-half a teaspoonful of 
saleratus, to render it alkaline; then should be added one ounce —two table- 
spoonfuls — of the peroxide of hydrogen. 
