Eczema in Sheep. 499 



that the animal entered on the winter with an appearance of alo- 

 pecia. The denuded surface was, red, shining and covered with a 

 dense covering of lamelliform epidermic scales. In the early 

 stage of the eruption there was moderate pruritus, but when the 

 scaly stage was reached it was neither tender nor itchy to any 

 marked degree. Tar ointments had no effect in stimulating the 

 growth of the hair, and the skin remained bald until the next at- 

 tack. The second and third years the eruption extended farther, 

 invading not only the trunk, but the' legs, and passing through 

 the same successive stages. 



The animal was butchered and the shafts of the bones were 

 found to be abnormally red, and showed three concentric rings of 

 deeper brown, manifestly representing the three acute attacks and 

 resembling the concentric rings formed in growing bones when 

 the young animals are fed on madder. 



The manifest disorder of nutrition in this chronic skin disease, 

 is an argument for the treatment by alterative tonics, such as ar- 

 senic, as well as for the employment of tonics and corroborants in 

 general. In such cases the presumption is that local treatment 

 would be useless or nearly so until the general disorder could be 

 repaired. 



ECZEMA IN SHEEP. 



In aosemias squamous eruptions. In cold rainy weather moist eczema. 

 Salving. Thin wooled. Congestion, swelling, papules, vesicles, scabs, 

 depilation. Recovery with dry weather. Prevention: fold in rainy weather, 

 covers. Pruriginous eczema. Fagopyrism. 



The skin of the sheep is so densely covered by wool and so 

 lubricated with its own secretion, that it is little liable to non- 

 parasitic dermatitis, or such as exist are to a large extent over- 

 looked. In internal parasitisms (distomatosis, strongyliasis, etc. ) , 

 the wool becomes flattened ("clapped") and the skin the seat 

 of a dry (squamous) eczema with scaly accumulations around 

 the roots of the wool. 



Moist EczeMA, the "rain rot"' of the Germans is seen in 

 low conditioned sheep which have been left out in the heavy 

 cold rains, and is attributed to the direct entrance of the rain by 



