24 Veterinary Medicine. 



Respirations. The morbid activity or inactivity of the respi- 

 ration, its modified rhythm, the pathological significance of the 

 altered breathing sounds and of the superadded sounds, the indi- 

 cations furnished by percussion, palpation, mensuration, succus- 

 sion, sneezing, snorting, yawning, cough, moan, grunt, stertor, 

 discharge, etc., afford material of inestimable value to the diag- 

 nostician. See under diseases of the chest. 



Skin Symptoms. The erection of the hair of carnivora in 

 rage or fear implies a profound nervous disturbance, and a simi- 

 lar erection (staring coat) in the larger herbivora especially, im- 

 plies a corresponding nervous disorder, due, however, to a differ- 

 ent cause — fever. The pallor and coldness of (white) skin and 

 extremities the retrocession of blood toward the internal organs, 

 the contraction of the involuntary muscles of the hair bulbs, the 

 sense of cold, and the actual shivering all come from the funda- 

 mental nervous disorder. The loss of lustre and gloss in the hair 

 and the dryness, rigidity and lack of mobility (mellowness) of 

 the skin imply lack of nutrition. The mellow feeling of the 

 skin under the pressure of the finger, soft and yielding by reason 

 of the lax connective tissue and fatty layer in the thrifty animal, 

 is in marked contrast with the dry, hard, tough, unyielding hide 

 firmly adherent to the parts beneath (hidebound), which denotes 

 the unhealthy or unthrifty animal, or from the thin, attenuated, 

 mobile, bloodless skin of the debilitated subject, the victim of 

 lung, liver, or intestinal worms. In sheep in parallel conditions 

 there is a lack of yolk in the wool, which is dry, lusterless and 

 brittle and often flattened (clapped) on the skin. In fowls ruf- 

 fling of the plumage indicates the nervous disorder and chill. 

 The skin may be scurfy in conditions of low health or in con- 

 nection with the presence of vegetable or animal parasites. 

 Ringworm has excessive scurf, and tends usually to a circular 

 form, and to complete shedding of the hair from the affected 

 spots. The hairs split up before dropping. In acariasis there 

 may be scurf, scab, abrasion and sores of many kinds, but the 

 outline is not necessarily circular, nor strictly limited, isolated 

 hairs remain even on the bare patches, and itching is extreme as 

 shown by the movement of the body and especially of the lips or 

 foot when the part is scratched. 



The hair may be freely shed during convalescence from debili- 

 tating diseases, a condition that must not be confounded with 



