1 Sepr., 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 229 
But the adulterator has now learnt to break up, or “explode,” the starch 
granules, so that the microscope is defeated. At least, this is what we hear. 
eh: The rapid strides made in adulteratine wheat with maize flour 
argue the removal of restraints which were till quite recently in existence. 
The consumer should not be called upon to pay for the product of maize flour 
at £8 per ton, as though it were obtained from good wheat flour now quoted 
at exactly double that price. 
Animal Pathology. 
ON THE TREATMENT OF HORSE MANGE. 
By J. SIDNEY HUNT, M.R.C.S., 
Government Pathologist. 
Time was, ten years or so ago, when the subject of mange in horses— 
“Queensland Horse Mange,” as it was rather invidiously called—attracted a 
good deal of attention. Nowadays it has fortunately—or unfortunately, in 
relation to greater ills that have come upon us—become a matter of comparative 
insignificance. The trouble is also less prevalent, horses less valuable, and 
uwners, perhaps, less particular. It still lingers, however, and, judging by the 
applications received from time to time for an effectual remedy, is still a source 
of some loss or annoyance to owners. The following note of what has been 
found by the writer an effectual method of treatment may therefore be worth 
recording. ; 
In order to make clear the satzonaie of the treatment to be recommended, 
it is, however, desirable, in the first place, to describe briefly the nature and 
cause of the affection. Without a knowledge of these things it is impossible 
to understand the “ how’ and the “why” of any proposed remedy, or-even, 
intelligently, to apply it. And the object of this paper is rather to point out 
the principles‘of rational treatment than to add another to the hundred-and- 
one more or less empirical specifiies that have already been advocated. 
Horse Mange has been shown* to be due to the invasion of the skin by a 
minute vegetable parasite—a form of fungus growing like a ‘‘mould” in the 
erypts or follicles in which the hairs are embedded, involving the hairs themselves, 
and spreading out on to the surface of the affected skin, where it forms an 
important part of the little scales or scabs, which are so characteristic a feature 
in typical cases of the disease. The fungus, though fine, can hardly be called 
a microscopic object, for, when looked for in a suitable way, it can quite well 
be seen with the naked eye. One way to find it, is to pick off one of the 
thickest scales or scabs, and soak it in a weak solution of potash (or ammonia, 
* Tryon (H.): ‘Special Interim Report on the origin and nature of a disease at present 
existing amongst the stock of the colony, and commonly known as ‘‘Mange.” (Preliminary 
Report of the Board appointed to make full inquiry into the Origin and Nature of a prevalent Disease 
affecting Stock commonly known as Mange. Parliamentary Papers, C.A. 12, 1888. Op ecit., pp. 119- 
28.) The facts set forth by Tryon in his lengthy memoir on “* Mange,” regarding the particular 
vegetable parasite that he regards as casually related to the disease. are not quite in accord with 
those given expression to in this article. In the section, however, of his report that is devoted to 
“Treatment,” he advocates, as does the present writer also (postea), the use of mercurial salts, 
dwelling especially on albuminate of corrosive sublimate and citrine (nitrate of mercury) oint- 
nt. 
“On the Nature of Horse Mange.” Australian Pastoralists’ Review, 15th February, 1893. 
(By the present writer.) The main facts as tothe nature of the disease, and the illustrations, are 
here reproduced-from that article, by the kind permission of the proprietors of the Review. The 
fungus of horse mange had heen previously noted not only by H. Tryon, the Government 
Entomologist, in 1888, and by Mr. J. Haslam, in horses similarly affected in India, in the same 
ear, but it was also referred to by Mr. Irving, of Brisbane, in a paper published in the Annual 
Apart of the Department of Agriculture for 1889-90. 
