VIRULENT MANGE. 4o1 
incessant itching. Almost always there is a fat unwieldy state 
of the system from want of exercise, but the appetite is. often 
deficient. The treatment is founded upon the constitutional 
nature of the disease, which is not caused by any parasite or 
vegetable growth, and is solely the result of what is commonly 
called foulness of the blood. The first thing to be done is to 
clear out the bowels by a brisk aperient, such as (12) or (13). 
‘Then give low diet without flesh, starving the dog till he is ready 
to eat potatoes and green vegetables, alternately with oatmeal 
porridge—and then only in moderate quantities. As soon as the 
stomach is brought down to this kind of food, but not before, begin 
to give the liquor arsenicalis with the food, the dose being a drop 
to each four pounds in weight of the animal, and thus a.dog of 
eight pounds weight will require two drops three times daily ; 
taking care to divide the food into three equal portions, and . not 
to give more of this altogether than is required for the purpose 
of health. The arsenic must be administered for weeks, or even 
months, and as soon as the itching seems abating and the health 
is improved the mangy parts of the skin may be slightly dressed 
with small quantities of sulphur and pitch ointments mixed in 
equal proportions. By a pérseverance in these'remedies for two 
or three months the blood becomes purified and the eruption dis- 
appears, after which, if the health seems impaired, a stomachic 
or tonic (59) or (62) will often be required. Sometimes the 
ointment (58a) will be required. 
Virulent mange (which may be compared to psora and porrigo 
in the human subject) is of two kinds, one attributable to a para- 
sitic insect, and the other of vegetable origin. In the former case, 
which is its most common form, it appears in large kennels where 
cleanliness is not sufficiently attended to, and when the floors 
become loaded with the excretions. There is no doubt that this 
is highly contagious, but’ there is also little difference of opinion as 
to its being capable of being bred or developed among a lot of 
previously healthy dogs if mismanaged in the above way. The 
skin shows itself bare of hair in large patches of irregular form, 
and the hair being, as it were, gradually worn away at the edges, 
as if by scratching. The skin is dry and rough, with cracks and 
creases in various directions, from some of which a thin ichorous 
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