stant lying indicates it (to
prevent extensive sores), the patient should be placed in slings. When
all four feet are affected it may be impossible to use slings, for the
reason that the patient refuses to support any of his weight and simply
hangs in them. Lastly, convalescent cases must not be returned to work
too early, else permanent recovery may never be effected.

DISEASES OF THE SKIN.

By JAMES LAW, F. R. C. V. S.,

_Formerly Professor of Veterinary Science, etc., Cornell University._

As we find them described in systematic works, the diseases of the skin
are very numerous and complex, which may be largely accounted for by the
fact that the cutaneous covering is exposed to view at all points, so
that shades of difference in inflammatory and other diseased processes
are easily seen and distinguished from one another. In the horse the
hairy covering serves to some extent to mask the symptoms, and hence the
nonprofessional man is tempted to apply the term "mange" to all alike,
and it is only a step further to apply the same treatment to all these
widely different disorders. Yet even in the hairy quadruped the
distinction can be made in a way which can not be done in disorders of
that counterpart and prolongation of the skin--the mucous membrane,
which lines the air passages, the digestive organs, the urinary and
generative apparatus. Diseased processes, therefore, which in these
organs it might be difficult or impossible to distinguish from one
another, can usually be separated and recognized when appearing in the
skin.

Nor is this differentiation unimportant. The cutaneous covering presents
such an extensive surface for the secretion of cuticular scales, hairs,
horn, sebaceous matter, sweat, and other excretory matters, that any
extensive disorder in its functions may lead to serious internal disease
and death. Again, the intimate nervous sympathy of different points of
the skin with particular internal organs renders certain skin disorders
causative of internal disease and certain internal diseases causative of
affections of the skin. The mere painting of the skin with an
impermeable coating of glue is speedily fatal; a cold draft striking on
the chest causes inflammation of the lungs or pleura; a skin eruption
speedily follows certain disorders of the stomach, the liver, the
kidneys, or even the lungs; simple burns of the skin cause inflammations
of internal organs, and inflammation of such organs