THE VETERINARIAN.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 705, 4 September 1885, Page 11

THE VETERINARIAN.

DISEASES OF THE SKIN OF THE HORSE AND OTHER ANIMALS. Affections of the skin due to invasion of parasites, either from the plant or animal kingdom, are very common in the lower animals, and often assume an obstinate character, requiring severe treatment for their eradication. Unlike the diseases of the skin which, are associated with derangement of the system, parasitic diseases are distinctly local in character, although it is probable, especially in the case of parasitic plants, that the state of the system has something to do with the growth of the plant; in fact, it is certain that microscopic fungi will not grow in any part of the skin unless there is a favourable soil, and one animal will become an easy victim, while others in the samo stable, shed, or pastures will remain perfectly free, showing that a certain susceptibility exists in one case, and is absent in others, under conditions which appear to be the same. - Young animals are more subject to parasitic invasions of different ports of their organism than adults are ; but the latter do not enjoy perfect immunity. Infection with parasites is necessarily due to the actual transference of the germ of the mature parasite to the organism of the hea-.tby animal. It is therefore always easy to aseert that the attack is due to a previous case of the disease, even when no such case is known to exist in the neighbourhood.