DISEASES OF THE SKIN AMONG DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 
31 
DISEASES OF THE SKIN AMONG DOMESTICATED ANIMALS, 
By George Muller, Ph.D., Docent in the Royal Veterinary School 
of Munich. 
(Translated by Wm. S. Gottheil, M.D., Instructor in Dermatology at the N. Y. Polyclinic, 
Lecturer on Histology at the American Veterinary College.) 
Skin diseases are common enough among our domestic animals, 
but present by no means such varied symptoms as they do in the 
human subject. 
This may be partly due to the fact that a number of skin dis¬ 
eases do not occur in the lower animals at all; but it is largely 
caused by the neglect from which dermatology has suffered at the 
hands of veterinarians. Diagnosis is rendered difficult by the 
hairy and generally pigmented skin, which frequently masks the 
dissimilarity of the most heterogeneous eruptions. The pig alone 
has a dermal covering analagous to that of man; but of all our 
domestic animals the pig is the one least affected by disorders of 
the cutaneous surface. 
The horse, dog and sheep are most commonly troubled with 
this class of diseases. 
The classification of dermatoses most in vogue is quite simple. 
Veterinarians speak of acute and chronic cutaneous disorders. 
This is not satisfactory, as many maladies, like the polymorphous 
eczema, may be either acute or chronic. 
A division into parasitic and non-parasitic skin diseases is 
more useful, although there are a number of mykotic dermatoses 
concerning whose etiology the authorities do not agree. Never¬ 
theless we had better accept and extend this classification; since 
a causal division is undoubtedly the ideal pathological classifica¬ 
tion. 
Any attempt to classify skin diseases upon the pathologico- 
anatomical findings is prevented by the fact that one and the same 
anatomical change is found in the most varied dermatoses, and 
further because many of these conditions have not yet been espec¬ 
ially studied. * 
For this latter reason more especially, it becomes impossible 
for us to use Auspitz’s excellent classification; for seven out of 
his nine classes are based upon their etiology, and two only upon 
their pathological anatomy.. 
