332 DOGS AND ALL ABOUT THEM

does it appear to be so difficult to treat them ? " I should answer the first thus : Through the neglect of their owners, from want of cleanliness, from injudicious feeding, from bad kennelling, and from permitting their favourites such free intercourse with other members of the canine fraternity. Overcrowding is another and distinct source of skin troubles.

My answer to the second question is that the layman too often treats the trouble in the skin as if it were the disease itself, whereas it is, generally, merely a symptom thereof. Examples : To plaster medicated oils or ointments all over the skin of a dog suffering from constitutional eczema is about as sensible as would be the painting white of the yellow skin in jaundice in order to cure the disordered liver.

But even those contagious diseases that are caused by skin germs or animalcules will not be wholly cured by any applications whatever. Constitutional remedies should go hand in hand with these. And, indeed, so great is the defensive power of strong, pure blood, rich in its white corpuscles or leucocytes, that I believe I could cure even the worst forms of mange by internal remedies, good food, and tonics, etc., without the aid of any dressing whatever except pure cold water.

In treating of skin diseases it is usual to divide them into three sections : (1) The non-contagious, (2) the contagious, and (3) ailments caused by external parasites.

(1) THE NON-CONTAGIOUS.-(A) ERYTHEMA.-This is a redness, with slight inflammation of the skin, the deeper tissues underneath not being involved. Examples-That seen between the wrinkles of well-bred Pugs, Mastiffs, or Bulldogs, or inside the thighs of Greyhounds, etc. If the skin breaks there may be discharges of pus, and if the case is not cured the skin may thicken and crack, and the dog make matters worse with his tongue.

Treatment-Review and correct the methods of feeding. A dog should be neither too gross nor too lean. Exercise, perfect cleanliness, the early morning sluice-down with cold water, and a quassia tonic. He may need a laxative as well.

Locally-Dusting with oxide of zinc or the violet powder of the nurseries, a lotion of lead, or arnica. Fomentation, followed by cold water, and, when dry, dusting as above. A weak solution of boracic acid (any chemist) will sometimes do good.

(n) PRURIGO.-Itching all over, with or without scurf. Sometimes thickening.

Treatment-Regulation of diet, green vegetables, fruit if he will take it, brushing and grooming, but never roughly. Try for worms and for fleas.

(c) ECZEMA.-The name is not a happy one as applied to the usual Itching skin disease of dogs. Eczema proper is an eruption in which the formed matter dries off into scales or scabs, and dog eczema, socalled, is as often as not a species of lichen. Then, of course, it is often accompanied with vermin, nearly always with dirt, and it is irritated out of all character by the biting and scratching of the dog himself.

Treatment-Must be both constitutional and local. Attend to the organs of digestion. Give a moderate dose of opening medicine, to clear away offending matter. This simple aperient may be repeated occasion

AILMENTS AND THEIR TREATMENT 333

ally, say once a week, and if diarrhoea be present it may be checked by the addition of a little morphia or dilute sulphuric acid. Cream of tartar with sulphur is an excellent derivative, being both diuretic and diaphoretic, but it must not be given in doses large enough to purge. At the same time we may give thrice daily a tonic pill like the following :

Sulphate of quinine, J to 3 grains ; sulphate of iron, I grain to 5 grains ; extract of hyoscyamus, } to 3 grains ; extract of taraxacum and glycerine enough to make a pill.

Locally-Perfect cleanliness. Cooling lotions patted on to the sore places. Spratts' Cure. (N.B.-I know what every remedy contains, or I should not recommend it.) Benzoated zinc ointment after the lotion has dried in. Wash carefully once a week, using the ointment when skin is dry, or the lotion to allay irritation.

(2) CONTAGIOUS SKIN DISEASES.-These are usually called mange proper and follicular mange, or scabies. I want to say a word on the latter first. It depends upon a microscopic animalcule called the Acarus Jolliculorum. The trouble begins by the formation of patches, from which the hair falls off, and on which may be noticed a few pimples. Scabs form, the patches extend, or come out on other parts of the body, head, legs, belly, or sides. Skin becomes red in white-haired dogs. Odour of this trouble very offensive. More pain than itching seems to be the symptomatic rule. Whole body may become affected.

Treatment-Dress the affected parts twice a week with the following:

Creosote, 2 drachms ; linseed oil, 7 ounces ; solution of potash, 1 ounce. First mix the creosote and oil, then add the solution and shake. Better to shave the hair off around the patches. Kennels must be kept clean with garden soap and hot water, and all bedding burned after use. From three months to six will be needed to cure bad cases.

MANGE PROPER is also caused by a parasite or acarus, called the Sarcops canus. Unlike eczema, this mange is spread from dog to dog by touch or intercommunication, just as one person catches the itch from another.

The Symptoms-At first these may escape attention, but there are vesicles which the dog scratches and breaks, and thus the disease spreads. The hair gets matted and falls off. Regions of the body most commonly affected, head, chest, back, rump, and extremities. There may not be much constitutional disturbance from the actual injury to the skin, but from his suffering so much from the irritation and the want of rest the health suffers.

Treatment-Avoid the use of so-called disinfectants. Most of those sold as such are simply deodorisers, and, applied to the skin, are useless. Nor are they of much use in cleaning the kennels. Nothing suits better for woodwork than, first, carbolic wash, and then a thorough scrubbing with hot water and garden soap.

Some ointment must be used to the skin, and as I am writing for laymen only I feel chary in recommending such strong ones as the green iodide of mercury. If you do use it mix it with twice its bulk of the compound sulphur ointment. Do over only a part or two at