Skin Diseases. 267 



but tlial. have not sufferedfrom rubbing, tlie nature of the 

 eruption will be seen, especially if a slightly magnifying 

 glass be used. The affection usually gives way readily 

 nader the use of weak alkaline washes (carbonate of soda 

 1, dr., water 1 pint,) or soap-suds, a restricted laxative 

 (Hot and gentle laxatives. 



INFLAMMATION WITH VESICLES. 



In this form of skin disease papules are croivned with 

 little blisters, so small and pointed as to require a mag- 

 nifying glass to make them out distinctly (eczema), or as 

 large as a small pea and rounded (herpes, bullae). These 

 forms are common in horses and dogs, and to a less extent 

 in ruminants, especially in connection with disorders of 

 digestion. Highly stimulating food, clipping and hot 

 weather are particularly favorable to their development. 

 Boiled food, diseased potatoes, green food or any change 

 of diet may cause them. One form of this affection is 

 induced by a too extensive use of mercury to the skin. 

 Cattle suffer from eating the refuse of distilleries and 

 gardens, garbage from kitchens, etc. ; sheep are attacked 

 after exposure to cold rains. Old horses suffer from an 

 inveterate form ia connection with bad food and want of 

 grooming and wholesome stabhng. In dogs too, it be- 

 comes inveterate and chronic, the whole skin being de- 

 nuded of hair and of a bright scarlet, with the character- 

 istic eruption mixed with cracks, sores and scabs (red 

 mange). In the milder forms, dogs suffer mainly inside 

 the thighs or on the scrotum ; horses suffer under the 

 harness and especially at the root of the mane and under 

 the saddle, but the eruption may spread over the whole 

 body; cattle suffer on the hmbs, especially the hind, but 

 not exclusively so. 



The other eruptions are often mingled ^vith the vesicles, 

 the hairs become bristly, and as the skin is broken .by 

 rubbing, a bloody or straw-colored exudation concretes 

 in scabs and mats the hair together, while elsewhere ex- 

 tensive raw sores appear. 



