BOTS. * 93 



without bots; that but for them he would dwindle and die. 

 This opinion is quite disproved by the fact that the horse that 

 is not exposed to the nit-fly during the fall never has bots. 

 Such liorses may be found by thousands, and yet they have 

 good health, and keep in good condition. 



But by far the most injurious error concerning bots is, that 

 they are the cause of a frequent, rapid, and fatal disease in 

 the horse. Is a horse taken sick, no matter at what season of 

 the year, if he turns up his lip, looks at his side, or ]}iits his 

 nose against it, nine out of ten of those who stop to look at 

 him will pronounce the case bots. Thus, lung fever, pleuris}', 

 inflammation of the stomach, bowels, and kidneys, dry gripes, 

 colic, gravel, and every other disease of the internal parts of 

 the horse have been pronounced bots, and the horse drenched 

 with one "bot medicine" after another, until he has died, or 

 got well, in spite of the medicine. And this doctoring for 

 bots is done just as often in the season of the year that not 

 one bot can be found in the horse, as at any other equal length 

 of time; yes, and on horses that were not exposed to the 

 gad-fly in the fall as often as on any others. 



The examination of hundreds of horses that were said to 

 have died of bots has shown that they had actually died of 

 some of the diseases before mentioned. And in many of these 

 cases not a single bot has been found in the stomach. I will 

 select a case or two, which will show how badly persons are some- 

 times deceived. 



A fine horse at one of the livery stables was taken sick about 

 the last of July, and the case pronounced bots by the peddler 

 to whom he belonged, and by as many as a dozen other men, 

 who were said to know a great deal about horses. I was sent 

 for, and pronounced the case colic, and that the horse would die, 

 and offered to bet that not a bot would be found inside his hide. 

 He died in about an hour. He was opened, and the stomach 

 found full of undigested, swollen food, and greatly distended, 

 and not a single bot could be found. 



