MANGE.
This cutaneous affection, which was formerly attributed to want of cleanliness, or to some peculiar state of the blood, is now generally admitted to arise from the presence of certain minute insects termed acari. It is identical with the scab in sheep, and the itch in the human being, which also were supposed to arise from corruption of the blood, or acrid humor subsisting in it, or from filthiness, but which arise from this scabious insect. As far back as the twelfth century these acari scabiei were described by an Arabian physician; subsequently they were noticed and described by several German and Italian writers, and in 1812 and 1814 Herr Walz, a German veterinarian, and M. Gohier, an eminent French veterinary surgeon, found these insects in, and gave drawings of, and described those peculiar to, almost all our domesticated animals.
There is a very interesting translation from a pamphlet by Dr. Hertwig, given in the Veterinarian for 1838, in which a detailed account of the habits and history of these insects will be found.
The hog does not appear to suffer so much from mange or scab as the horse, sheep, and dog; in swine, the pustules are usually chiefly developed under the arm-pits, and on the interior of the thighs. They at first consist simply of red spots, vesicles, or pimples; but these gradually become connected together by minute burrows, or furrows existing beneath the skin, and eventually unite in the form of large scabs, which the animal, irritated by the itching, rubs into large blotchy sores.
Where the mange is recent, a tolerably strong decoction of tobacco or digitalis will often prove an efficacious wash for the diseased parts, or a solution of corrosive sublimate; but if the eruption is of long standing, and has degenerated into scabs, a solution of arsenic in the proportion of one ounce to a gallon of water, or, what is still better, sulphur and mercurial ointment in the proportion of an ounce of the former to a drachm of the latter, carefully and thoroughly rubbed into the skin, must be resorted to. A decoction of soot has also been recently discovered by an eminent French physician to be exceedingly efficacious in cases of cutaneous disorders. Two handfuls of soot are boiled during half an hour in a pint of water, the fluid is then strained off, and the lotion when cold used two or three times in the day. Creosote has also been used with success in the treatment of cutaneous eruptions. If the animal is in high condition, blood should be taken, and two or three doses of cooling physic given, or sulphur mingled with the food. Strict attention must be paid to cleanliness, and the animal kept apart from the rest of the herd. Mange is both hereditary and infectious. There are numerous instances of its having been communicated from
