I now give you Dent's article on Eczema, written expressly for this book:

"In medical nomenclature, eczema is a very comprehensive term. It is applied to all diseases of the skin (except true mange or dog itch), and on account of the irritation set up during an attack of mange, it is generally complicated with eczema, which remains to annoy the dog and his owner long after the mange mites are destroyed.

"Dogs are particularly subject to skin diseases, that are the bane alike of the breeder keeping a large number of dogs in kennels, or the single house pet. While true dog itch is common enough, ninety per cent of all skin diseases are eczema.

"There is a close relation between the skin of the dog and his digestive , organs, and a deranged stomach will quickly find expression through an eruption of the skin; any poverty or plethoric condition of the blood will also be expressed In the same way. If there is any defect or unhealthy condition of the digestive tract, and it is called upon to digest unsuitable food, It is only a question of time before poisons are introduced into the blood that will produce inflammation and eruptions of the skin. Strictly speaking, eczema is an inflammation of the skin due to the causes above mentioned, and numerous others such as old, dirty, damp bedding, lack of exercise, over-feeding, starvation, irritation from insects, lice, fleas or from true mange. In most cases it can be ascribed to a disordered condition of the blood and general system.

"Eczema assumes a variety of forms. In one very common form there is first a redness of the entire skin with a dry scaly dandruff that flakes off. In another form there is an eruption of small distinct pimples or papules that do not always break but can be easily felt, like shot under the skin. In another form there is a formation of scurvy crusts of a yellowish white color that smells like mice, and underneath this crust are small, cup-shaped ulcers.

"Follicular mange, or red mange, is due to a sort of vegetable fungoid mite that lives at the base of the hair and around the sebaceus gland. It turns the skin a sort of brownish red, kills the hair root, and is most commonly found along the back near the root of the tail.

"In the commonest form of eczema.there will first be noticed a patch on some part of the dog's body that is inflamed or covered with pimples. These pimples increase in size and become a vesicle filled with a clear turbulent or purulent fluid. This sore breaks, the fluid escapes, runs over the skin which it irritates, and dries into scabs which mat the hair together. The inflammation affects the hair follicle, the hair drops out leaving bare spots, and there is a constant exudate of matter, which spreads and forms more bare spots. The skin becomes ulcerated or thickened and wrinkled. The dog is tormpnted by the intolerable itching past all point of endurance, scratches himself until he bleeds, cannot sleep or eat, gets no rest and becomes a mere wreck of his former self.

Treatment

As previously stated, eczema and inflammation of the skin are largely due to constitutional causes, and there is no specific treatment or radical cure for all cases, and the owner must exercise his power of judgment and reason, and possibly try two or three different preparations before effecting a cure.

"The following course must be pursued. First make a change in the animal's diet if he is being fed on grains and vegetables with little or no meat, give him an increased amount of meat both lean and raw, with little or no bread or vegetables, and vice versa. If the dog is fat and plethoric, generally prosperous, and inclined to be constipated, give him a good laxative pill every night and fast for twenty-four hours. If he is thin and unthrifty give cod liver oil emulson with from two to five grains of the sulphate or iron of Sergeant's Iron and Arsenic Pills. The fat plethoric dog should have a blood purifying and cooling pill twice a day for some time. Clayton's Blood Cooling Pill is very good, or the following prescription:

Flower of sulphur ........................... 2 ounces.

Cream of tartar.............................. 3 ounces.

Bromide of potassium ........................ 3 drams.

Mix and divide into eighteen powders and give one in the morning.

"The blood purifying and cooling pills mentioned are the best thing to use, handy and easier to give.

"Besides the mange and eczema cures on the market the following are useful in cases where there is great irritation with little or no eruption:

Plumbi aret.............................. 1/2 dram.

Soda bibarat.............................. 1 1/2 drams.

Glycerin .................................. 2 ounces.

Aqua camphor ........................... 8 ounces-.

Lanolin .................................. 4 ounces.

Lard ..................................... 4 ounces.

Salicylic acid ............................. 1 ounce.

Boracic acid .............................. 1 ounce.

Apply once a day and wash every week and repeat. Another is:

Carbolized glycerin.......................... 1 ounce.

Laudanum .................................. 2 ounces.

Carbonate of potash ......................... 2 drams.

Apply all over, twice a day, wash twice a week. Another is:

Boracic acid ................................ 1 ounce.

Salicyclic acid .............................. 1 ounce.

Laudanum ................................. 1 ounce.

Whale oil ..................................14 ounces.

Apply all over twice a day and wash once a week with Eberhart'i Soap."

"The Kennelman" has this to say of Eczema, published in American Stock-Keeper:

"Obstinate cases of eczomi are most distressingly aggravating to the kennel owner. In a majority of instances this condition arises from the continued use of starchy toot's. When the symptoms appear - pustulous formations at the roots af the hair, after a preliminary redness of the skin and wet oozy sores that appear to the size of a half dollar in a night, the diet should be attended to. Lean, raw meat must be fed almost exclusively. Then the blood must be purified, and exercise given freely. A handy preparation that will be found excellent as a general cleanser and preventive is a mixture of equal parts (not weights) of Epsom salts, cream of tartar and sulphur lac; a pinch every morning, in quantity according to the size of the dog, dropped on the tongue for a week will do good. It is a remedial agent that is useful at any time. In bad chronic cases this mixture will do well - one drop of fluid extract of colchicum and five grains of sulphate of soda, three times daily in a capsule; feed raw beef and no cereal food. Apply to the sores equal parts of oil of tar and alcohol, or Eberhart's Skin Cure.

"Another good thing is the liver of sulphur one buys in pound tins (Sulph. Potass). Dissolve a teaspoonful in a quart of warm water and apply at once to the sores, in fact, the whole body should be covered with it. If a dip is required for several dogs make the solution of the above proportions; if too strong the hair will be burned off. This is a wonderfully good remedy for puppy rash that develops often after puppies leave the mother; and if the puppy licks itself all the better."