272 THE HORSE 



to be grazed should have a dressing of lime in the spring, 

 and subsequently during the summer have a liberal sprink- 

 ling of salt, which helps to destroy the eggs of all worms. 

 When July comes in, and during August and September, all 

 horses at grass should be daily examined, especially towards 

 the evening, to note whether the bot-fly has laid its eggs on 

 their coats ; these should be looked for especially on the 

 forelegs, inside the knees, along the mane, and behind the 

 shoulders along the ribs. Every egg should be scraped off 

 with a knife lest the horse should lick itself, or another 

 perform the same kind office for it ; if the egg is swallowed 

 it will turn into a large grub and live in the stomach, where 

 it buries its head in the mucous membrane. The effect on 

 its host is not at once apparent, but about Christmas it 

 will be noticed that the horse is falling off in condition, 

 and in spite of pampering with drugs and tonics the 

 animal will get thinner and thinner, and all the blame is 

 then laid upon the horse having been turned out to grass 

 the summer before. It never dawns upon the groom or his 

 master that it was to the neglect of the former, either through 

 ignorance or apathy, that the present forlorn state of the horse 

 is due. So matters go on, the victim getting thinner and 

 thinner, if it is harbouring a number of the parasites, until 

 about July, when the grubs attain maturity, let go their 

 hold, and pass away to undergo the next stage of their cycle 

 of existence, and, eventually becoming large flies, in their 

 turn lay their eggs on another unfortunate animal. No 

 medicine seems to have any effect on these parasites, and 

 the writer has kept them alive for more than a week in 

 spirits of turpentine, and they might indeed have gone on 

 so living, only the experiment was regarded as fully proved, 

 so they were thrown out and summarily despatched. 

 Occasionally they bore holes through the mucous membrane 

 and thus cause the death of the horse. Very large numbers 

 are sometimes present, and the writer once noted eighty-four 

 pass away from an animal in his possession which had been 

 bought at auction the previous autumn. When once clear 

 of the parasites the horse quickly picked up flesh, and became 

 quite a different-lookmg animal in a short time. The bots 



