58 Stable Management and the Prevention of Disease 



dry by themselves, wlien they come from the fields into their 

 stables. If the coronets are rubbed quite dry at once when 

 they are brought in, the eruption is never seen. It might 

 be imagined from this that the disease is of the same nature 

 as cracked heels, or grease ; and in many respects it does 

 resemble them. The long dewy grass perpetually brushing 

 against the coronets when the horses walk, would of course 

 wet the front more than the back of the foot ; and the evapo- 

 ration, by producing a reaction, might bring on inflammation 

 in the skin, and other symptoms of grease. 



There are, however, some points in which chiber differs 

 from the latter. For instance, there is no swelling in the 

 lower part of the limb. Then, again, horses in England are 

 often brought from wet grass-land into stables without having 

 their legs rubbed dry^ yet they never have an eruption on 

 their coronets, although they may in their heels. Another 

 difference is that chiber, so far as I have known it, is only 

 seen where the grass-fields are near swampy land. It did 

 not occur, even during the rainy seasons, in well-drained 

 districts. I am inclined, therefore, to suspect that there is 

 some special irritant floating from the swamps and deposited 

 with the dew, which produces the vesicles by being concen- 

 trated as the dew dries from the surface of the skin. 



"When the disease first appears it may be easily cured in a 

 few days by applying night and morning a lotion composed 

 of chloride of zinc, about half an ounce of Burnett's solution 

 to a pint of water. 



In neglected or improperly treated cases where the raw 

 surface is denuded of hair, and is becoming horny in its 

 nature, nothing will cure so well as repeated blisters of 

 hydrarg. biniod. The internal administration of arsenic in 

 five-grain doses for about a fortnight seems to assist the cure 

 in bad or protracted cases. 



Pkickly Heat. 



Horses in India are subject to a skin disease closely 

 resembling, and I believe identical with, prickly heat in 

 man. It commences in the hot season, and the chief 



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