224 THE DISEASES OF THE DOG). 



after incision cuts off a piece from the edge of the wound 

 to prevent too rapid healing, or snips out a triangular 

 portion from near the centre with rowelling scissors 

 ('Veterinary Journal,' vol. i, p. 63). 



Auricular Acaeiasis has been introduced to the notice 

 of the profession in England by an article in vol. xv, No. 

 86 of the 'Veterinary Journal.' It seems that Megnin 

 found in sporting dogs severe anaemia, epileptiform 

 seizures (which occurred generally while at exercise), and 

 frantic and almost continuous shaking of the ears, which 

 caused them to die after months of suffering. He ob- 

 served covering the external auditory canal a thick layer 

 of sooty-looking cerumen, in which on microscopical exa- 

 mination acari, Ghorioptes ecaudatus, were found. These 

 parasites infest the ears of cats and other carnivora. Five 

 per cent, solutions of sulphide of potassium frequently 

 injected into the ear cured the patients. Nocard observed 

 the same disease in Sporting dogs which were quite deaf 

 in many cases and were affected with epilepsy when 

 excited in a run. The symptoms were sometimes so 

 violent as to be mistaken for rabies and the dogs destroyed 

 accordingly. The derangement could be conveyed from 

 dog to dog by transfer of infested cerumen ; the acari 

 were not found in healthy dogs' ears. They are supposed 

 to give rise to a reflex kind of epilepsy allied to the spinal 

 epilepsy of Brown- Sequard, or to " Menier's disease " as 

 seen in man. The following formula of an acaricide is 

 recommended by Nocard : — Take of olive oil 100 parts, 

 naphthol 10 parts ; sulphuric ether 30 parts. Keep in a 

 well- stoppered bottle. Inject some of this daily into the 

 ear and plug it with cotton wool for ten to fifteen minutes 

 afterwards to prevent evaporation. 



Under the heading polypi of the ear are generally de- 

 scribed growths in the external auditory canal such as 

 result from internal canker ; these are fibro- vascular if 

 superficially placed and cartilaginous if deep. They are 

 probably merely the result of internal canker, not the cause 

 of it, as was supposed by Dr. Mercer (' Veterinarian,' 1844) , 

 who in his description of them gives a good account of 



