300 KENNEL DISEASES. 
without any internal medicines, the latter would generally require potent 
remedies. 
In all cases of eczema in which the presence of worms is suspected, a 
vermifuge should be given, and other internal medicines be withheld for a 
short time, until it is clear that a cure is not likely to take place without them. 
In a large proportion of cases of eczema the patients are victims of indiges- 
tion of quite long standing. Where the skin disease seems due to this cause, 
manifestly all errors in diet must be corrected, and only simple and easily 
digestible foods allowed. This salutary change instituted, the stomach trouble 
will often disappear without the use of medicines; but if it persists, there 
should be obtained pills, each of which contains about two grains of pure 
pepsin and one-fourth of a grain of the extract of nux vomica; and one of them 
be administered twice daily, after eating. 
This pill is right for medium size breeds. For the largest it may be one- 
half stronger; for dogs about the size of fox-terriers it were best to have it 
contain one grain of pepsin and one-eighth of a grain of nux vomica; while 
for toys, the quantity of pepsin may be the same, but the nux vomica, at least 
at first, ought not to exceed one-sixteenth of a grain. 
Exercise is the grand eliminator of waste, and unless sufficient be allowed, 
the system is quite sure to become choked with poisonous matter that should 
have been expelled. In such cases the liver is generally torpid and sluggish, 
as indicated by bad breath, coated tongue, and disinclination to active move- 
ment; or, as commonly expressed, the dog is dumpish. 
When this condition exists, or is even strongly suspected, it is advisable to 
stop all other internal treatment for from two to six days, and give pills com- 
posed as follows: 
Blue mass, four grains; powdered ipecac, one grain; extract of dandelion, 
thirty grains. 
From this mixture twelve pills should be made if the dog be of medium or 
largest size breed, and one pill be given three times daily. For all dogs of 
smaller breeds the same number of pills might be made, but only one-half 
, of the quantities of the various ingredients advised should be put into them; 
and it would scarcely be wise to give them to such for more than two or three 
days. 
The medicine most frequently resorted to in eczema is arsenic, and undoubt- 
edly many times it is used indiscriminately and when not required. It cer- 
tainly has proved of value in some cases of the chronic form of the disease, 
but simpler remedies would often do quite as well, and should always be tried 
first. 
It is but rarely, if ever, indicated in moist skin diseases, for they are gen- 
erally made worse by it. Therefore it cannot often be resorted to in acute 
eczema, because the eruption is seldom dry. Nor can it rightly be adminis- 
