DISEASES OF THE SKIN. 463 



it ; the animal should not be given more than a swallow or two of cold 

 water when perspiring and fatigued, nor should he be allowed a full 

 supply of water just after his grain ration; he should not be over- 

 heated or exhausted by work, nor should dried sweat and dust be 

 allowed to accumulate on the skin or on the harness pressing on it. 

 The exposure of the affected heels to damp, mud, and snow, and, 

 above all, to m.elting snow, should be guarded against ; light, smooth, 

 well-fitting harness must be obtained, and where the saddle or collar 

 irritates an incision should be made in them above and below the 

 part that chafes, and, the padding between having been removed, the 

 lining should be beaten so as to make a hollow. A zinc shield in the 

 upper angle of the collar will often prevent chafing in front of the 

 withers. 



Treatment. — Wash the chafed skin and apply salt water (one-half 

 ounce to the quart), extract of witch-hazel, a weak solution of oak 

 bark, or camphorated spirit. If the surface is raw use bland powders, 

 such as oxid of zinc, lycopodium, starch, or smear the surface with 

 vaseline, or with 1 ounce of vaseline intimately mixed with one-half 

 dram each of opium and sugar of lead. In cases of chafing rest must 

 be strictly enjoined. If there is constitutional disorder or acrid 

 sweat, 1 ounce cream of tartar or a teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda 

 may be given twice daily. 



CONGESTION, WITH SMALL PIMPLES, OR PAPULES. 



In this affection there is the general blush, heat, etc., of erythema, 

 together with a crop of elevations from the size of a poppy seed to a 

 coffee bean, visible when the hair is reversed or to be felt with the 

 finger where the hair is scanty. In white skins they vary from the 

 palest to the darkest red. All do not retain the papular type, but 

 some go on to form blisters (eczema, buUse) or pustules, or dry up 

 into scales, or break out into open sores, or extend into larger swell- 

 ings (tubercles). The majority, however, remaining as pimples, 

 characterize the disease. When very itchy the rubbing Jjreaks them 

 open, and the resulting sores and scales hide the true nature of the 

 eruption. 



The general and local causes may be the same as for erythema, and 

 in the same subje«t one portion of the skin may have simple conges- 

 tion and another adjacent papules. As the inflammatory action is 

 more pronounced, so the irritation and itching are usually greater, 

 the animal rubbing and biting himself severely. This itching is espe- 

 cially severe in the forms which attack the roots of the mane and tail, 

 and there the disease is often so, persistent and troublesome that the 

 horse is rendered virtually useless. 



