202 DISEASES OP THE HORSE. 



treatment must be directed to the destruction or removal 

 of this insect or mite, before a cure can be effected ; so, 

 also, with faulty assimilation or digestion, which so often 

 gives rise to skin disease, and which must be improved and 

 corrected before the effect, (disease,) will cease and be cured 



(1.) Baldness. — Parts of the skin of the horse become 

 denuded of the hair, occasioned by minute or small pim- 

 ples, which usually contain a fluid, and burst, or break, 

 carrying the hair with it. These pimples, or small tumors, 

 however, are sometimes vesicular, sometimes papular, and 

 sometimes scaly. They are caused by faulty digestion, 

 and should be treated by soft feed, or fresh-cut grass. 

 The hair will grow again. 



Baldness is caused by scalds, burns, and blisters; and 

 where the true skin is not entirely destroyed, the hair can 

 be restored by using a weak ointment of iodine — iodine, 

 half a drachm ; hog's lard, eight drachms ; mix, and apply 

 by rubbing with the hand, once every third day, till there 

 are evidences of a growth of hair springing up. Gun- 

 powder and lard have no more power in causing hair to 

 grow, than as much lard, saltpetre, sulphur and charcoal 

 would have; nor is it to be compared to the iodine, 

 because, if iodine does not restore the hair in all cases, it 

 will certainly dye or stain the skin a dark color, which 

 cannot be washed off; and hence, in dark-skinned horses, 

 is of much use in removing the bare, bald-look of a white 

 spot. 



(2.) Mange, Itch, Psoea, or Scabies. 



Cause. The result of an insect breeding and burrowing 

 in the skin, and is called acari, a variety of mite or 

 animalcule. 



Symptoms. At first, a fine crop of pustules, not at this 

 time always seen, about the head and neck, and under the 



