Scabies or Mange. 
* 69 
is readily effected by thorough washing with soft soap and 
water, and, after scraping dry, the application over the whole 
body of any reliable mange dressing twice in a fortnight. 
Good food facilitates the cure. Litter should be burnt and 
places disinfected. 
Scabies or Mange. — Scabies or mange ( Psoric acariasis ) 
may result from the attack of either of three varieties of 
acarus or mange mite, and is named accordingly, sarcoptic, 
psoroptic, or symbiotic. The two last forms are usually 
regarded as more common in cattle. Acari are all minute, and 
none are readily distinguishable with the naked eye. All mature 
mange mites have four pairs of legs, and the thorax and body 
are continuous and unjointed, and their heads are adapted for 
pricking or piercing the skin. These parasites live, breed, 
and develop on the skin, and have no tendency to leave it of 
their own accord. They are, however, sometimes rubbed on 
to posts, hurdles, &c., and may live away from the animal for 
some time, probably about two or three weeks. Their power 
to injure depends on the rapidity with which they multiply. 
Some idea of the rate of increase may be formed from the 
statement of an authority on the subject, that one pair of 
acari may in three months produce 1,000,000 females and 
500,000 males. 
Mange or scabies is common to all domesticated animals. 
The disease is, as far as is known, not commonly transmitted 
from animals of one species to those of another species. Each 
mange parasite flourishes best on its proper host. Usually 
mange is observed in poor neglected animals. These are 
certainly not the exclusive conditions under which mange 
in cattle has frequently come under our notice. Indeed, 
our experience rather suggests that it is, at any rate, more 
frequently observed in high-class, highly fed, and, generally 
speaking, well-cared-for animals. Observation at the entrances 
to our showyards indicates that mange is not very uncommon 
in show cattle, and that the stringent rules as to non-admission 
of cattle affected with contagious skin disease are thoroughly 
warranted. Prevalence of mange in show cattle may be 
accounted for in two ways : animals from many sources are 
congregated, and are more or less closely associated in the 
showyard ; and, while there, they are, one after the other, well 
handled by innumerable keenly interested visitors, who possibly 
sometimes transfer the parasite from the affected to the healthy. 
The Sarcoptes , the smallest of the three, is not regarded as 
a common cause of disease in cattle. It does, however, exist, 
and more frequently than is generally supposed. The parasite 
is lfticroscopic in size. When a mature fertilised female 
reaches the skin, she pierces it, and bores her way into the 
