538 
F. W. TURNER. 
chronic eczema, so often occurring in dogs, the treatment 
with an ointment of red oxide of mercury, or ammoniated 
mercury, solution of corrosive sublimate 1-200, or the paint¬ 
ing of the eczematous spot with a strong solution of caustic 
soda or potash, is indicated ; also frequent washing with soap 
and water is of service. When tar is applied to moist spots, 
or as long as any moisture shows itself, it seems to aggravate 
the sore and do more harm than good. A new remedy, lately 
introduced in medicine, of great value in the treatment of 
moist chronic eczema, is sozoiodol of mercury. When an 
ointment of 2 per cent, of sozoiodol of mercury with lanoline 
is applied several times a day to the affected parts, the moist 
surfaces soon become dry, the swelling is rapidly reduced, 
the epidermis regenerated, the skin becomes normal, and only 
the loss of hair shows where the disease had existed. Obser¬ 
vations show that dogs would vomit freely if they had a chance 
to lick off the ointment, and gave occasion to study means 
of preventing such an accident with the following results: 
Sozoiodol of mercury is a very fine, orange-yellow powder, 
containing 31.2 per cent, of mercury and 38 per cent, iodine, 
almost insoluble in water, but readily soluble in water by the 
addition of a little chloride of sodium or kitchen salt. When 
applied in the pure state to wounds or mucous membranes, it 
acts as a strong irritant. When diluted about twenty times, 
it is still very irritating, but on diluting it fifty times it seems 
to irritate no longer. It seems advisable, when using a sozoio¬ 
dol of mercury ointment to prevent the animal from licking 
off the ointment by a proper muzzle. 
In cases where we have a dry chronic eczema, no matter 
whether it was dry from the beginning or developed from a 
case of moist eczema, then the different tar preparations, such 
as pix liquida, ichthyol and thiol are the proper remedies. 
Investigations have shown that the terrible itch in eczema is 
much more speedily relieved by the application of thiol or 
ichthyol, than by tar, a fact for which no satisfactory explan- 
ation’can be given as yet. In all cases where much itching 
exists, thiol or ichthyol is preferable to tar, for the constant 
rubbing and scratching of the dog generally causes an acute 
degeneration of the affected parts. 
