_Locally_--Perfect cleanliness. Cooling lotions patted on to the sore places. Spratts' Cure. (N.B.--I know what every remedy contains, or I should not recommend it.) Benzoated zinc ointment after the lotion has dried in. Wash carefully once a week, using the ointment when skin is dry, or the lotion to allay irritation. (2) Contagious Skin Diseases.--These are usually called mange proper and follicular mange, or scabies. I want to say a word on the latter first. It depends upon a microscopic animalcule called the _Acarus folliculorum_. The trouble begins by the formation of patches, from which the hair falls off, and on which may be noticed a few pimples. Scabs form, the patches extend, or come out on other parts of the body, head, legs, belly, or sides. Skin becomes red in white-haired dogs. Odour of this trouble very offensive. More _pain_ than itching seems to be the symptomatic rule. Whole body may become affected. _Treatment_--Dress the affected parts twice a week with the following:-- Creosote, 2 drachms; linseed oil, 7 ounces; solution of potash, 1 ounce. First mix the creosote and oil, then add the solution and shake. Better to shave the hair off around the patches. Kennels must be kept clean with garden soap and hot water, and all bedding burned after use. From three months to six will be needed to cure bad cases. Mange Proper is also caused by a parasite or acarus, called the _Sarcops canus_. Unlike eczema, this mange is spread from dog to dog by touch or intercommunication, just as one person catches the itch from another. _The Symptoms_--At first these may escape attention, but there are vesicles which the dog scratches and breaks, and thus the disease spreads. The hair gets matted and falls off. Regions of the body most commonly affected, head, chest, back, rump, and extremities. There may not be much constitutional disturbance from the actual injury to the skin, but from his suffering so much from the irritation and the want of rest the health suffers. _Treatment_--Avoid the use of so-called disinfectants. Most of those sold as such are simply deodorisers, and, applied to the skin, are useless. Nor are they of much use in cleaning the kennels. Nothing suits better for woodwork than, first, carbolic wash, and then a thorough scrubbing with hot water and garden soap. Some ointment must be used to the skin, and as I am writing for laymen only I feel chary in recommending such strong ones as the green iodide of mercury. If you do use it mix it with twice its bulk of the compound sulphur ointment. Do over only a part or two at a time. The dog to be washed after three days. But the compound sulphur ointment itself is a splendid application, and it is not dangerous. (3) Skin Complaints from Vermin.--The treatment is obvious--get rid of the cause.