GENERAL PART OF EXAMINATION. 45 



Loss of Hair. A loss of hair over the whole or a large 

 part of the body (alopecia) sometimes quickly follows the re- 

 covery of an animal from a severe infectious disease (con- 

 tagious pleuropneumonia of the horse). A gradual loss of 

 coat accompanies chronic, cachectic diseases in sheep and 

 dogs. In chronic diseases affecting nutrition the hairs be- 

 come loose, and may be easily removed by pulling or rubbing. 

 Horses clipped late in the season (November, December) grow 

 short winter coats ; when these are shed the following spring, 

 the skin is left partially denuded of hair, giving the animal 

 a half-naked appearance. 



Where the hairs fall out in patches, and lesions are found 

 in the skin, a disease of the integument is present. 



II. Sweat secretion. The skin is kept continually moist by 

 the secretions of the sweat glands. In healthy animals at rest the 

 supply of secretion is just sufficient to keep pace with the loss by 

 evaporation, so that the skin does not feel wet hut soft and pliable. 

 The skin's moisture is increased by exercise, high atmospheric tem- 

 peratures and nervous excitement. Sweating does not become visible 

 in swine, sheep, dogs, and cats. 



In disease a more or less profuse outbreak of 



sweat (hyperidrosis) appears: — 



1. In severe dyspnea, wbere it is compensatory, assist- 

 ing the lungs to throw off effete matter ; stenosis of the 

 anterior respiratory passages, diffuse pneumonias, pulmonary 

 emphysemas, and organic heart diseases. 



2. In painful maladies : founder, colic, enteritis. 



3. In diseases painfully affecting the muscles : tetanus, 

 epilepsy, azoturia, cerebro-spinal meningitis. 



4. In severe infectious diseases, septicemia, pyemia. 



5. When an animal is much weakened from acute or 

 chronic disease. 



Normally, perspiration is accompanied by a hyperemia 

 of the whole skin ("hot szvcat"). If this congestion is absent 

 the sweat being excreted upon a cold skin surface, "cold 

 sweat" is spoken of, a condition to be judged unfavorably from 

 a prognostic standpoint. 



