250 FARMERS' REGISTER— GRUBS OR BOTS AND COLIC IN HORSES. 



face, to suffer greatly in dry seasons. I would 

 not advise to plant trees on hillsides, but a great 

 many peojile must ])lant them there, or not have 

 them at all — neither would I advise to plant on 

 perfect level land, upon which, or in which, the 

 water would be retained, so as to sob the land, and 

 injure the roots of the trees. 



CHARLES WOODSOX. 



GRUBS OR BOTS i:V HORSES AND COLIC. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Kegiater. 



Prince Edward Couufy, 



I am aware that the popular prevailing and 

 almost universal opinion is, that bots or giubs in 

 horses, fre(]uently cause their death by eating 

 through their stomachs. Erroneous as I certainly 

 think tiiis opinion, I should abstain from contro- 

 verting it, in consequence of the very numerous 

 and respectable witnesses who have united in as- 

 serting it to be a fact, that they have Irequently 

 seen the stomachs of horses perforated by the 

 grubs, to a perfect riddle, passing themselves, and 

 letting out the contents of the stomach into the 

 chest of the horse, were it not that I think it the 

 duty of every man in society, to controvert what 

 he verily believes to be injurious error, at the least, 

 by giving his reasons for being oi" a dift'erent opin- 

 ion. I have seen many horses opened that were 

 thought to have been killed by grubs, and examined 

 the intestines of several with very great care and 

 attention. With the solitary exception of a single 

 grub, I never saw one fastened upon any part of 

 the intestines, except in a short canal or passage 

 between the upper and lower stomach, * frequently 

 lining the whole passage to overflowing, where 

 they insert their heads into the membranous fleshy 

 substance of the canal, which is much thicker 

 than the coat of the stomach, forming cells like 

 lioney comb, but never passing through: nor does 

 at appear that they ever let go their first hold, till 

 they arrive at full maturity, and are ready to pass 

 off, and be discharged with the excrement, unless 

 they should be forcibly detached, which is some- 

 times, but rarely, the case. Where a number of 

 full grown grubs have detached themselves all 

 nearly from one spot, leaving some smaller im- 

 mature grubs scattered about, and not so deeply 

 settled, they sometimes get rubbed ofl" by the pas- 

 sage of rough food, and sometimes, but very rarely, 

 are found mingled with the food in the stomach, 

 and by possibility may fasten again on some other 

 part of the intestuies. In the single instance no- 

 ticed above, I saw a grub (listened on some part 

 of the stomach, where he had made a pretty deep 

 cell, but had not penetrated more than half through, 

 the stomach seeming to have swelled and thick- 

 ened considerably at that point. 



Some years past I lost a valuable horse, that 

 upon examination certainly died by hoving or 

 bursting of the stomach,occasioned by being care- 

 lessly starv^ed, and then full fed with as many dry 

 clean oats as he would eat. Upon opening him 

 for examination, there Avere present three or four 

 white men, and eight or ten grown negro men, 

 who all with one accord, declared that the grubs 

 had eaten his stomach to a perfect riddle, and let 



out a portion of the food and grubs into the chest; 

 the white men were so fully satisfied that the grubs 

 had eaten through the stomach, and killed the 

 horse, that 1 could not prevail upon them to remain 

 till I had examined farther to my satisfaction, 

 which I did alone, and found that the holes which 

 they thought had been eaten by grubs through 

 the stomach, were occasioned by the swelling of 

 the food in the stomach, which burst it oj^en in 

 that manner, the parts giving way and opeiing in 

 a kind of net work, showing on slight examina- 

 tion, the appearance of holes eaten tlirough by 

 grubs, and through the largest of which holes, a 

 portion of the food, and some two or three gruba 

 had passed out. I had before that seen like open- 

 ings, not quite bursted through the stomach of a 

 horse, that had no grubs in him, and was supjjosed 

 to have died with colic. If it be the fact, that 

 grubs do not destroy horses by eating through 

 their stomachs, of which I am as certain as of 

 any thing not poshively known, it follows of course, 

 that very sick horses in imminent danger of speedy 

 death, need never be treated with any view to 

 destroy or remove grubs, even if medicines were 

 known of certain elTicacy in their immediate re- 

 moval or destruction; but experiments frequently 

 tried, demonstrate the fact, that grubs cannot be 

 killed by the administration of an\' medicine, that 

 would not certainly kill the horse. I have im- 

 mersed them for twenty-four hours in spirits of 

 turpentine, ardent spirits, in camphorated spirits, 

 in od, and various other infusions, none of which 

 destroyed lili? in grubs oi' any size, from small 

 maggots to full growth, — which facts and ojiinions 

 taken together, are sufficient to demonstrate the 

 propriety of treating very sick horses, with the 

 view to cure some other disease, which may most 

 commonly be considered colic in soine form, to 

 cure Avhich there is never any lack of doctors, 

 scarcely any two of whom agree in their use of 

 the same remedies. Nevertheless, it will not be 

 denied, that diflierent remedies may be good in the 

 same disease. The most generally successful 

 practice which has fallen under my observation, 

 when horses have been very sick apparently with 

 colic, is to drench them immediately with a quart 

 or more of very strong soap suds, of old soap if to be 

 had — the suds made quite thick and ropj', and to be 

 given lukewarm; and soon as possible bleed freely, 

 and throw up an injection of a strong decoction of 

 tobncco, say two quarts, milk warm. This relaxes 

 the whole system, and should the horse recover, 

 he should by all means be permitted to rest till his 

 strength shall be certainly recruited. In case the 

 horse swells, with indications of speedy death, the 

 last remedy is to stab him with a trocar and canula, 

 if to be had, or a knife four or five inches deep, in 

 a right line exactly half way between the left hip 

 bone and the lower end of the short-rib, turning 

 the point of the instrument a little forward and off 

 from the loin, in order to avoid striking the kidney 

 and be certain to perforate the large intestine 

 which presses against that part of the flank. If a 

 knife, is used for stabbing, it will be projier to have 

 a tube of some kind, made smooth and inserted 

 into the orifice as soon as the knife is withdrawn, 

 in order to let out the wind, the free escape of 

 which, is frequently prevented by the closing of 

 the orifice in the flank, and bj^ a change of position, 



* I am not very certain, (relying on memory alone) bringing the orifice in the intestine to press against 

 of the precise location of the grubs. " 1 Bome other part, and thus prevent the escape of 



