466 DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 
mare and allowing the first milk after she returns, or by milk ren- 
dered unwholesome by faulty feeding of the dam. If a foal is 
brought up by hand the souring and other decompositions in the milk 
derange the digestion and cause such eruption. Vetches and other 
plants affected with honeydew and buckwheat have been the cause of 
these eruptions on white portions of the skin. Disorders of the 
kidneys or liver are common causes of this affection. 
Treatment.—Apply soothing ointments, such as benzonated oxid 
of zinc, or vaseline with 1 dram oxid of zinc in each ounce. Ora 
wash of 1 dram sugar of lead or 2 drams hyposulphite of soda in a 
quart of water may be freely applied. If the skin is already abraded 
and scabby, smear thickly with vaseline for some hours, then wash 
with soapsuds and apply the above dressings. When the excoriations 
are indolent they may be painted with a solution of lunar caustic 2 
grains to 1 ounce of distilled water. Internally counteract costive- 
ness and remove intestinal irritants by the same means as in eczema, 
and follow this with one-half ounce doses daily of hyposulphite of 
soda, and one-half ounce doses of gentian. Inveterate cases may 
often be benefited by a course of sulphur, bisulphite of soda, or 
arsenic. In all, the greatest care must be taken with regard to feed, 
feeding, watering, cleanliness, and work. In wet and cold seasons 
predisposed animals should, so far as possible, be protected from 
wet, mud, snow, and melted snow—above all, from that which has 
been melted by salt. 
BOILS, OR FURUNCLES. 
These may appear on any part of the skin, but are especially com- 
mon on the lower parts of the limbs, and on the shoulders and back 
where the skin is irritated by accumulated secretion and chafing with 
the harness. In other cases the cause is constitutional, or attended 
with unwholesome diet and overwork with loss of general health and 
condition. They also follow on weakening diseases, notably strangles, 
in which irritants are retained in the system from overproduction of 
poisons and effete matter during fever, and imperfect elimination. 
There is also the presence of a pyogenic bacterium, by which the 
disease may be maintained and propagated. _ 
While boils are pus producing, they differ from simple pustule in 
affecting the deepest layers of the true skin, and even the superficial 
layers of the connective tissues beneath, and in the death and slough- 
ing out of the central part of the inflamed mass (core). The depth 
of the hard, indurated, painful swelling, and the formation of this 
central mass or core, which is bathed in pus and slowly separated 
from surrounding parts, serve to distinguish the boil alike from the 
pustule, from the farcy bud, and from a superficial abscess. 
Treatment.—To treat very painful boils a free incision with a 
lancet in two directions, followed by a dressing with one-half an 
