subject, have their seat in the skin: it were a point well worthy of study to inquire into the reason of this fact, but as the present work is devoted to practice rather than theory, we must leave it to abler hands, and pass onwards to a consideration of some of the most prevalent diseases of the skin in swine.
GANGRENOUS ERYSIPELAS.
This disease, which is frequently spoken of by the ancient writers, as prevailing to a greater or less extent, and often almost as an epidemic among sheep and swine, is now of rare occurrence. Poulet thus describes the symptoms:—
"The first of these, which last some five or six days, are uneasiness, inquietude, depression, loss of appetite, and inertness. About the seventh or eighth day these gradually increase in intensity; the limbs totter, the body is alternately hot and cold, the ears droop and are cold, the head appears heavy, the tongue is discolored, the breath fetid, a thick mucus flows from the nostrils, and the whole of the skin becomes tinged with an erysipelatous redness, which is most evident under the belly; the animal utters almost incessant screams of pain. This inflammatory state of the integuments rapidly merges into decided gangrene, and the whole of the diseased surface becomes of a livid blue or violet hue. The skin is first covered with blisters containing a thin reddish watery fluid; and as these break, the gangrenous, dark colored scabs are formed. The disease is, however, by no means of so fatal a character in swine, as it is in sheep, probably from the former being the stronger animals. A little blood should be taken from the ears, once at any rate, and the bleeding should be repeated if it appears at all necessary. A dose or two of Epsom salts, cooling drinks slightly acidulated, and strict attention to diet and cleanliness, are generally all that will be requisite. Should the skin appear to be very irritable, a little sweet oil may be rubbed over it, or some sulphur made into a kind of ointment with sweet oil or palm oil; but local applications are not generally requisite."
Exposure to great heat or cold, or any sudden transition from one extreme of temperature to another, are supposed by some authors to be the causes of this disease; while others, and we think with justice, attribute it to unwholesome or putrid food, and to general inattention and neglect.
LICE.
Pigs, when allowed to wallow in the mire, and to dwell in filthy styes, are very apt to engender these disgusting vermin, which eat into the skin and render it scabby and ulcerated, and by the irrita-
