ECZEMA. 



505 



(saddle, girth, shafts), hind quarters, breech (breeching of the 

 crupper).^ 



There is no plausible reason to admit the intervention of internal 

 causes adding their action to those of these local irritations: young 

 age, fineness of the integument, and the moulting or shedding 

 season must be considered as causes predisposing to this der- 

 matosis. 



Symptoms. Papulo-vesiculous eczema is essentially character- 

 ized by the development of numerous papules which are arranged 

 in irregular groups ; at the beginning of the disease they may only 

 be found in passing the hand over the integument; their volume 

 varies between a millet-seed and a pea ; their consistence is soft, 

 but later they become hard, and the hair is erect upon their sur- 

 face. The skin is warm and sometimes slightly tumefied ; when it 

 is folded or slightly pressed we observe an intense sensitiveness. 

 At the time of efflorescence there is a moderate pruritus, which 

 disappears when the disease is at its height. 



The papules are soon the seat of a sub-epidermic serous exuda- 

 tion (vesiculous condition) ; small scabs are formed which agglutin- 

 ate the adjacent hairs into tufts, and carry these along when falling 

 out. Circumscribed depilated spots remain, which are reddish when 

 the skin is deprived of pigment, are covered with a grayish epi- 

 dermic pellicle when the skin is pigmented, and squamous when 

 exudation has been abundant (exfoliant rash). In cases where the 

 inflammatory process is much extended, whitish blotches persist on 

 the pigmented skin ; these are entirely depilated {strophulus). 



Treatment. This variety of eczema is benign ; it heals of itself 

 as soon as the different stages of inflammation have ensued ; the 

 hair returns and grows slowly. In the majority of cases it is use- 

 less to res(5rt to drugs ; if, however, the owners prefer to have their 

 animals treated we may advise softening of the scabs and dirt with 

 glycerin, vaseline, or green soap, and friction with alcohol upon the 

 depilated regions, with the object of stimulating the growth of hair. 

 The most favorable preparations are tincture of tar (tar and alco- 

 hol) and tincture of creolin (1 :5-10 of alcohol). Ichthyol has also 

 been advised (Bass). 



1 Acute eczema may be developed by this mechanical action on regions where 

 cutaneous surfaces rub against one another during movements (of the foreleg, groin), 

 especially when the skin is covered with sweat and dust; we give them the name of 

 intertrigo; it is also expressed by the saying that the animal has chafed the foreleg, etc. 



