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 melting 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, bulla) 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 breaks 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 subjeet 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. 
