232 VETERINARY SURGICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
it, or let the tegument, moist with perspiration, adhere to the harness, 
or loosen with it, lacerating the subcutaneous connective tissue, then a 
phlegmasia involving the skin and that tissue will develop, the region will 
become swollen, hot and more or less painful. 
All the treatment to be given is to suppress the cause of the disease, and 
if the epidermis is still intact, to apply cold or astringent lotions (white or 
alum solution). After a few days resolution is complete. If it takes place 
slowly, massage in the direction of the hair will stimulate it. When the 
skin is excoriated, antiseptic lotions and applications of borated, carbol- 
ated or iodoformed vaseline are used. In the rare cases of cedematous 
dermatitis, severe from the start and ending with the formation of a sub- 
cutaneous abscess, this must be opened early and treated as ordinary 
suppurating collections are. (See Adscess.) 
The chronic phlegmonous dermatitis, which seems peculiar to dogs, is 
ordinarily localized on small surfaces. It is observed most commonly on 
the lips, the sheath, the elbows, the hock or the digits. Danish dogs, 
large dogs and short-haired breeds are more exposed to it than small 
dogs. 
It is characterized at first by a tumefaction of the skin, on which the 
hair falls off ; it suppurates and shows an abscess very similar to that of 
follicular mange. While in this latter, however, most of the small purulent 
centers are whitish, in simple phlegmonous dermatitis all have a bluish-red 
tint, and the thin cutaneous layer which forms their external wall is shiny 
and has contents of a bloody appearance. These abscesses are fol- 
lowed by fistulous tracts which give escape to pus mixed with blood. 
Generally the disease progresses slowly. It may remain stationary for 
months ; in some instances it covers extensive surfaces and is complicated 
with fatal results. We have observed a dog in which the disease started at 
the sheath, extended to the groin and the right thigh, and gave rise to fatal 
peritonitis. Cultures of the pus, taken from the abscesses of the sheath 
and from the thigh, as well as that of the peritoneal effusion, produced 
colonies of staphylococci (staphylococcus pyogenes albus and aurens). In 
some cases where the lesions were circumscribed, we have isolated the 
same micro-organisms. 
This phlegmonous dermatitis is tenacious and obstinate to treatment. 
We have used against it numerous agents without much success. Dis- 
infection of the skin with antiseptic lotions, puncture of the purulent 
centers, cauterization of their walls with chloride of zinc or nitrate of silver 
and applications of tincture of iodine will sometimes succeed. When the 
patches are small and few, excision and an iodoform dressing are the 
