232 The Management and Treatment of the Horse, 



only one link is broken off and left in the intestines, 

 it will be generated into a perfect worm, they 

 having the property of reproducing the parts of which 

 they have been deprived. So much for the tapeworm. 

 May my reader never have the trouble to expel them. 



THE BOTS. 

 These are another and common kind of worm, 

 or, more properly speaking, they are the larvre 

 of the gadfly, oestrus equi. There are two species of 

 gadfly, hence we have two species of bots, which are 

 known under the distribution of red bots and white 

 bots. Their natural history and habits are exactly 

 alike. Horses may be affected by bots without being 

 materially injured by them, but I cannot agree with 

 Mr Bracy Clark that they are essential to the well- 

 being of the horse, or that they were destined by 

 Nature to act upon the food in the stomach by tritur- 

 ation, or as pepper does in the human stomach. Like 

 every other part of the animal's body this organ is so 

 admirably constructed that in its healthy condition no 

 artificial aid is necessary to enable it to perform its 

 office. If, as Mr Brown says, the theory of Mr Clark 

 was correct, what would supply the place of those 

 parasites during the time of year that the grub assumed 

 its nerfect condition ? In post-mortem examinations I 

 have made, proof has not been wanting of their not 

 being inoffensive as Mr Bracy Clark supposed. One 

 subject I opened four years ago— a black cart mare, the 

 property of Frederick Neame, Esq., of Macknade 

 House, Faversham, which died from violent inflamma- 



