DISEASES OF HORSES. 385 



medicine, and not interfering with either the feeding or work 

 of the horse, is emetic tartar, with ginger, made into a ball 

 with linseed meal and treacle, and given every morning, half 

 an hour before the horse is fed. A smaller, darker colored 

 worm, called the needle-worm, or ascaris, inhabits the larger 

 intestines. Hundreds of them sometimes descend into the 

 rectum, and immense quantities have been found in the 

 caecum. These are a more serious nuisance than the former, 

 for they cause a very troublesome irritation about the funda- 

 ment, which sometimes sadly annoys the horse. Their exis- 

 tence can generally be discovered by a small portion of mucus, 

 which, hardening, is found adhering to the anus. Physic will 

 sometimes bring away great numbers of these worms ; but 

 when there is much irritation about the tail, and much of 

 this mucus, indicating that they have descended into the rec- 

 tum, an injection of linseed oil, or of aloes dissolved in warm 

 water, will be a more effectual remedy. The tape-worm is 

 seldom found in the horse. 



BOTS cannot, while they inhabit the stomach of the horse, 

 give the animal any pain, for they have fastened on the cuti- 

 cularand insensible coat. They cannot stimulate the stomach 

 and increase its digestive power, for they are not on the diges- 

 tive portion of the stomach. They cannot, by their rough- 

 ness, assist the trituration or rubbing down of the food, for 

 no such office is performed in that part of the stomach the 

 food is softened, not rubbed down. They cannot be injurious 

 to the horse, for he enjoj'-s the most perfect health when the 

 cuticular part of his stomach is filled with them, and their 

 presence is not even suspected until they appear at the anus. 

 They cannot be removed by medicine, because they are not 

 in that part of the stomach to which medicine is usually con- 

 veyed ; and if they were, their mouths are too deeply buried 

 in the mucus for any medicine, that can be safely adminis- 

 tered, to affect them ; and, last of all, in due course of time 

 they detach themselves, and come away. Therefore, tho 

 wise man will leave them to themselves, or content himself 

 with picking them off when they collect under the tail and 

 annoy the animal. 



WIND-GALLS. In the neighborhood of the fetlock there 

 are occasionally found considerable enlargements, oftener on 

 the. hind-log than tho fore-ono, which are denominated wnd- 

 galls. Between the tendons and other parts, and wherever 

 the tendons arc exposed to pressure or friction, and particu- 

 larly about their extremeties, little bags or sacs are placed, 

 Q 



