ases, notably strangles, in which irritants are
retained in the system from overproduction of poisons and effete matter
during fever, and imperfect elimination. There is also the presence of a
pyogenic bacterium, by which the disease may be maintained and
propagated.

While boils are pus producing, they differ from simple pustule in
affecting the deepest layers of the true skin, and even the superficial
layers of the connective tissues beneath, and in the death and sloughing
out of the central part of the inflamed mass (core). The depth of the
hard, indurated, painful swelling, and the formation of this central
mass or core, which is bathed in pus and slowly separated from
surrounding parts, serve to distinguish the boil alike from the pustule,
from the farcy bud, and from a superficial abscess.

_Treatment._--To treat very painful boils a free incision with a lancet
in two directions, followed by a dressing with one-half an ounce
carbolic acid in a pint of water, bound on with cotton wool or lint, may
cut them short. The more common course is to apply a warm poultice of
linseed meal or wheat bran, and renew daily until the center of the boil
softens, when it should be lanced and the core pressed out.

If the boil is smeared with a blistering ointment of Spanish flies and a
poultice put over it, the formation of matter and separation of the core
is often hastened. A mixture of sugar and soap laid on the boil is
equally good. Cleanliness of the skin and the avoidance of all causes of
irritation are important items, and a teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda
once or twice a day will sometimes assist in warding off a new crop.

NETTLERASH (SURFEIT, OR URTICARIA).

This is an eruption in the form of cutaneous nodules, in size from a
hazelnut to a hickory nut, transient, with little disposition to the
formation of either blister or pustule, and usually connected with
shedding of the coat, sudden changes of weather, and unwholesomeness or
sudden change in the feed. It is most frequent in the spring and in
young and vigorous animals (good feeders). The swelling embraces the
entire thickness of the skin and terminates by an abrupt margin in place
of shading off into surrounding parts. When the individual swellings run
together there are formed extensive patches of thickened integument.
These may appear on any part of the body, and may be general; the
eyelids may be closed, the lips rendered immovable, or the nostrils so
th