Diseases of the Skin—External Parasites.. 211 
tated by the mildest application. I have such a case in 
remembrance, wherein the disease of the skin was rendered 
most distressing by its associations with a kind of cutaneous 
neuralgia ; and I have since seen several cases of a similar 
kind. In this morbidly sensitive state of the skin and of 
the eruption, I have found no remedy act so well as a solution 
of nitrate of silver in distilled water, in the proportion of 
one grain to the ounce.” * 
In such cases, constitutional treatment is not to be over- 
looked. Small doses of arsenicum or calomel are attended 
with considerable benefit ; iron and quinine also are of ser- 
vice. The animal should be kept dry, and the bedding 
clean. Exercise and nutritious feeding must likewise be 
observed. 
A species of eczema is not unfrequently produced through 
the incautious use of mercury (eczema mercurtale or hydrar- 
gyria). “An eruption occurs, characterised by round irri- 
table patches of skin from which a secretion oozes, and 
which are denuded of hair. The skin is at first red, swollen, 
and afterwards rough and hard. In dogs the eruption 
occurs chiefly on the limbs and scrotum. The general 
symptoms are loss of appetite, salivation, closure of the 
eyelids, great dulness, offensive exhalations from the skin, 
and sometimes death. Recoveries occur slowly.t 
ERYTHEMA. 
Dogs are occasionally affected with superficial inflamma- 
tion of the skin, which chiefly takes place on the face, espe- 
cially about the mouth and the extremities. The inflam- 
mation occurs in patches, which are throughout attended 
with but little heat or irritation, except in the latter stages 
of the affection, when the skin on the portions attacked 
peels off, leaving the surface underneath red and sensitive ; 
¥ Wilson’s “ Diseases of the Skin,” p. 191. 
"+ Gamgee’s “Our Domestic Animals in Health and Disease,” 
vol. ii. p. 133. 
