308 
FRANK H. MILLER. 
They are so far compiled one from another as to beget most 
uniform results in treatment, whether they be satisfactory or 
otherwise. 
The almost universal tendency in their teaching, as to this 
condition, is to catch the student up and drift him away among 
those who are ever inclined to seek difficulties in trying to es¬ 
tablish new diseases or rehabilitate very old ones. I have long 
since been driven to the firm conclusion that otitis externa of 
the dog, far from being a distinct pathological state, said by 
some to have a resemblance in some of its features only to an 
eczema, by others classed as catarrhal and requiring a distinct 
nomenclature, is plain eczema, nothing more, nothing less. 
Like eczema, wherever found, the causes may be multitu¬ 
dinous which produce it, but from a pathological and therapeu¬ 
tical point of view, it is still eczema, presenting various types 
incidental to variation of causes and the anatomical and physio¬ 
logical character of the tissues involved. 
It is doubtless true that perhaps quite ninety per cent, of these 
cases, as they are brought to us for treatment, show the so-called 
catarrhal feature to be in the ascendency, yet as veterinary 
practice goes we seldom if ever treat a patient until the animal 
has suffered at least many days. 
Practical experience in treating dogs almost exclusively has 
led me to believe that in the vast majority of these cases the 
initial symptoms which present themselves are substantially 
always those of eczema erythematosa, of the epidermis, external 
and close up to the point of its transition in character, and that 
the later defluction which is so apt to be attributed to a catarrh 
proper of the limiting membrane of the external ear, including 
the tympanum, is after all in the main the perfect counterpart 
of eczema madidans (or weeping eczema) so well understood as 
seen in other parts of the body. 
If this were primarily a catarrh of deep parts of the ear, the 
early examination of secretions would establish the fact. Such 
examination, however, refutes the supposition, and post-mortem 
examination when made, even in severe and chronic cases, 
