142 CANINE MEDICINE AND SUKGERY 



Symptoms. — Mor^ or less redness, diffuse or local- 

 ized, which can be made to disappear temporarily 

 by pressure of the finger, is an indication of ery- 

 thema. This redness is often accompanied by in- 

 tense pruritus. 

 " Treatment. — The cause, if possible, should be re- 

 moved and the affected parts soothed with appli- 

 cations of liquor plumbi subacetatis, Lassar's paste, 

 or oxid of zinc ointment. Burns and scalds should 

 be dressed with a saturated aqueous solution of 

 picric acid, and intense itching may speedily be re- 

 lieved by painting on a six-per-cent solution of silver 

 nitrate. 



Eczema 



Eczema is a dermatitis, manifesting itself in vari- 

 ous stages of development and intensity. The stages 

 which a typical eczema goes through are as follows, 

 but it must be remembered that the disease may 

 terminate or become chronic in either one of them, 

 also that the clinical picture may be quite materially 

 altered in appearance by the patient's rubbing, 

 scratching, or biting to relieve the pruritis. 



1. The erythematous stage, which consists of 

 hyperemia of the skin, with slight exudation and in- 

 creased proliferation of the epidermis, which later 

 becomes exfoliated as scales or scabs. 



2. The papular stage, characterized by the forma- 

 tion of small red papules, which are caused by small- 

 celled infiltration and serous saturation of the indi- 

 vidual papillae of the dermis. 



3. The vesicular stage, which develops when the 

 serous saturation is so extensive as to rupture the 

 cells of the rete muc^fvin, the fluid then penetrat- 

 ing as near to the surtace as the stratum corneum. 



4. The moist or weeping stage, which results 



