CENTRAL VETERINARY MEDICAL SOCIETY. 
55 
sulphate of zinc, and they then appeared to die away. If 
any fresh boils showed themselves he had treated them in the 
same manner. 
Mr. Rowe would just add that it had been briefly communicated 
to him that morning by Mr. Daniel that he had examined the 
skin very particularly for parasites, and failed to find any. The 
chief result he noticed was that as the animal recovered, one or 
two particular hairs stood perfectly upright, and with the least 
force you could pull out the whole of them, leaving the vesicle. 
Mr. J. Laurence Hamilton said, he trusted the interest he took 
in veterinary matters, although he did not belong to that branch 
of the profession, would lead them to pardon him if he rose to 
ask for information on the matter which had been brought before 
the meeting so ably and so clearly by the President. He would 
like to inquire whether inoculation had been practised, and, if 
so, with what result. He would venture to think that inocula¬ 
tion would at once test whether the disease was contagious or 
not, for it would be a direct experiment, and would give direct 
results. As regards the search for parasites he knew that in diseases 
of the human system, unless you search for the parasites in the 
very early stages you will not find them; and it was not every 
parasitical disease in which even the most skilful, the most careful, 
and the most cautious observers would in every case succeed in 
finding ‘ the parasites. Thus, taking an ordinary disease, well 
known to most of them—though he hoped only from hearsay, 
or in the person of others—that vulgar disease termed itch ; in 
the adult subject it was extremely difficult to find the insect that 
produced the disease; and in babies, unless you got the baby in 
the early stage of the disease, it was almost impossible to find it, 
and if any medicines or medicaments had been used they would 
fail to find the parasites. Even among medical men there were 
not many who were able to find the itch insect, and one should 
not give up the search for a parasitical insect because one man 
was not able to find it; it did not follow that his successor 
might not be more successful. As regarded the particular disease in 
question, he might say that in May he happened to have a couple 
of horses standing at one of the largest livery stables in London. 
The owner of these stables had three or four branch establishments, 
and he was informed, by a man employed in the yard, and 
likely to know what was going on, that the owner had 
himself (in or about June) some forty or fifty horses laid up 
with the complaint. He had himself been so occupied at the 
time with other matters, and being far from well, he was unable 
to investigate the subject further. As regards a rug covered with 
scabs or dirty matter producing a rash nothing was more likely; 
and wherever there was a tendency in skin diseases to an eruption, 
