CHAPTER X. 
THE SKIN—ITS ACCIDENTS AND ITS DISEASES. 
MANGE. 
Tuts troublesome disease, which is the itch of the stable, generally 
preys upon the poorly nurtured, the aged or the debilitated. Neglect 
is the almost necessary associate of poverty; loss of pride attends loss 
of means, for seldom can the spirit of man brave the frowns of fortune. 
The want of emulation is always seen most emphatically without the 
SYMPTOMS OF MANGINESS WHEN CAUGHT IN THE FIELD. 
doors of the home; the garden denotes the failure of industry, and the 
stable languishes under an absence of activity. The grooming is avoided; 
the horse’s food is proportioned to the master’s means, and is not given 
at regular hours; coarse diet and a filthy abode generate that weakness 
which will assuredly breed mange. 
The disease, once developed, is highly contagious; all horses standing 
near the one affected, all that may touch it, or the shafts to which it was 
harnessed, or anything that has been in contact with the contaminated 
body, are inoculated. The very robust, to be sure, may escape; but this 
circumstance is to be regarded as the most stringent test of actual 
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