484 Veterinary Medicine. 



In all such cases the drug must be withheld, the bowels cleared 

 out by a purgative and the elimination of any remaining irritant 

 products favored by gentle diuretics. 



ECZEMA. A BOII.ING OUT. A PUSTUI^E. 



General method of eruption. Successive advancing lesions. Definition. 

 Causes : usual factors and special susceptibility. 



This term, standing for what boils out, has long been applied 

 to vesicular eruptions on the skin, but inasmuch as the inflamma- 

 tion rarely stops short with vesiculation, but usually in part at 

 least goes on to more advanced lesions, it must be held to in- 

 clude in many cases erythema, papules, vesicles, pustules, crusts, 

 desquamations and erosions. All of these may co-exist or suc- 

 ceed each other in the same subject, so that considerable latitude 

 must be allowed to the name to cover all parts and stages of the 

 same attack. Dermatologists have defined eczema as a non-in- 

 fectious inflammation of the skin with multiform manifestations, 

 but recent observations would indicate that it may at times, at 

 least, be contagious, and micro-cocci have been found in the 

 serum of the vesicles, while the very occurrence of pus must vir- 

 tually imply the existence of a bacterial infection. Doubtless 

 different diseases pass under this name in the different genera 

 and species, and even in the same variety of animals, yet until 

 we learn to discriminate sharply the one from the other, it is 

 convenient to consider the whole as a kindred clinical group, if 

 not a pathological entity. 



Definition. An acute or more frequently, a chronic inflamma- 

 tion of the skin and sometimes of the mucosae, characterized by 

 itching, erythema, papules, vesicles, serous or sero-purulent 

 exudation with squama or crusts and loss of hair, and usually 

 largely due to an internal cause. The exudative condition has 

 suggested a catarrh of the skin. 



Causes. These are the usual causes of skin disease, local and 

 general, together with a special susceptibility, under which, what 

 are ordinary irritants produce this characteristic disease. Many 

 local irritants can produce eczema, but again it is often the case 



