92 XAYIX ox THE HOESE. 



grown, and lets go, and is carried out of tlie stomacli along 

 with its contents, and through the bov/els, and is finally thrown 

 out with the dung. But this is not the last of the hot. It 

 burrows in the ground, decreaseis somewhat in size, its outer 

 skin becomes harder; and after a few weeks the outer shell 

 opens, and a young gad-ily, or nit-fly, comes forth. The fe- 

 male fly becomes impregnated, and commences depositing her 

 eggs on the horse's coat. Thus we have traced the bot in all 

 its changes and habits ; and we have only found it an active 

 animal in one of the conditions of its existence, and that is in 

 the state of the gad-fly. When in the stomach of the horse 

 it is only a grub, attached by its hooks to that part of the 

 inner coat of the stomach which is without feeling. Here it 

 grows and matures, and finally loosens its hold, as a ripe 

 berry loosens its stem, and passes out with the contents of the 

 horse's bowels. It is supposed that the bot derives its nutriment 

 from the mucus of the stomach, which he takes in by his mouth, 

 or sucker, which is quite buried in the coat of the stomach. 



There are a great many mistaken notions prevalent about 

 the bot. I will refer to a few of these : 



Some suppose that bots are hereditary, and naturally come 

 into the horse's stomach, and that they remain there until 

 they get tired of their dwelling-place, and set to work to bore 

 out, as a fellow would out of jail. The first part of this sup- 

 position is sufiiciently answered by the history of the bot just 

 given. It has been shown that, fi'om the time the maggot is 

 taken into the stomach, to the time the full-grown bot is 

 thrown out, it is about ten months. And from about the last 

 of summer, when the bots have matured, until the beginning 

 of fall, not a bot can be found in the stomach or bowels of one 

 horse in a thousand. So the time of the bot in the stomach is 

 only about ten months ; and if the horse is so kept during the 

 fall as not to get any nits deposited on his hair by the gad- 

 fly, he will not have a bot in him for the remainder of the year. 



Another common error is, that the horse could not live 



