230 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JouRNAL. [1 Supr., 1898. 
intense irritation, and causing a reappearance of the disease—a circumstance 
which has led many owners to regard mange as an incurable affection, This 
outline of the nature of the disease suggests, at any rate, three qualities which 
an effectual remedy should possess :— 
1. It should be destructive to the life of the fungus. 
2. It should have also a penetrating nature, to reach deeply into the hair 
follicles. 
3. It should be of such a kind as not to be easily rubbed off or washed off 
by the rain, so that in the case of bush horses (for which a remedy is chiefly 
required) one or two dressings will suffice. Here is the prescription which 
was designed to meet these requirements :— 
Oleate of mercury (10 per cent.) ... tc Pee OLOZs 
Common resin ... Bee Se cA oe .. 4% drams 
Common turpentine ... ox et cs PoE HOZS 
Common kerosene... ee. ns xO oy te A: 
Linseed oil (raw)  ... .. « bn helttog MG, 
Directions for Mixing.—1. Dissolve the resin in the turpentine, and add 
the kerosene. 2. Mix the oleate of mercury and linseed oil. (If the oleate is 
recently made with heat, the oil should be also warmed to prevent pre- 
cipitation.) 8. Add the two former solutions together. 
The mercury is employed to fulfil the first requirement mentioned ; oleic 
acid (combined with the mercury as an oleate) and kerosene are added for the 
second; and resin, disselyed by means of turpentine, for the third. Linseed 
oil is used as a vehicle in which to dilute the other ingredients, and to make up 
the required bulk. It is not intended by any means to assert that this 
prescription best meets the requirements suggested, either in regard to the 
. particular ingredients employed, or as to the proportions of them indicated ; 
only that it was designed to meet these requirements, and has been found 
practically effective by the writer in horses of his own, and in those of friends 
who have employed it. / 
If the principles of treatment suggested are correct, it is obviously open 
to anyone to modify and improve the details of the method. 
Before applying this dressing it is advisable, though not absolutely 
necessary, to first thoroughly cleanse the horse by scrubbing with soap, soda, 
and hot water. The animal should be thoroughly dry before the dressing is 
applied. It should be applied freely and thoroughly to the mane, tail, and 
other affected parts, and well rubbed in with a stiff brush. It causes a 
certain amount of soreness, especially if used about the head, so that even 
quiet horses sometimes resent the application of a bridle for some days after- 
wards; it also makes them unsightly, sticky, and unpleasant to handle. A 
second dressing should be given in about a fortnight; and even a third, in bad 
cases, at a rather longer interval. 
The application adheres like a coating of paint—it is, practically, 
a penetrating, fungicidal paint—and only comes off when the hairs and scales 
of skin come off with it; and then is the time to reapply it, so as to completely 
destroy any remaining spores that may be deeply embedded in the follicles. 
In regard to the important question of cost: Oleic acid and yellow oxide of 
mercury are worth, respectively, about 2s. 6d. and 6s. per lb. ‘The two can be 
bought, already combined, in the form of oleate of mercury (10 per cent. 
strength), for 8s. or 9s. per lb. The other ingredients—resin, kerosene, 
turpentine, and linseed oil—are too cheap and familiar to require further 
mention. A. pint of the dressing—which should more than suffice for the cure of 
any one horse—can be made at home for about 3s. 6d. or 4s.; but as it can be 
obtained already compounded from a pharmaceutical chemist for very little 
more, it would hardly be worth while to go to the trouble of making it at 
home. In any case it is far from an expensive remedy. 
