THE HOKSE. 91 



and a small worm escapes, which adheres to the tongue, and is con- 

 veyed with the food into the stomach. There it clings to the cuticular 

 portion of the stomach, c, by means of a hook on either side of its 

 mouth ; and its hold is so firm and so obstinate, that it must be broken 

 before it can be detached. It remains there feeding on the mucus of 

 the stomach daring the whole of the winter, and until the end of the 

 ensuing spring; when, having attained a considerable size, c?, and being 

 destined to undergo a certain transformation, it disengages itself from 

 the cuticular coat, is carried into the villous portion of the stomach 

 with the food, passes out of it with the chyme, and is evacuated with 

 the dung. 



The larva, or maggot, seeks shelter in the ground, and buries itself 

 there ; it contracts in size, and becomes then a chrysalis, or grub, in 

 which state it lies inactive for a few weeks, and then, bursting from 

 its confinement, assumes the form of a fly. The female, becoming 

 impregnated, quickly deposits her eggs on those parts of the horse 

 which he is most accustomed to lick, and thus the species is perpetu- 

 ated. 



There are several plain conclusions to be drawn from this history. 

 The bots cannot, while they inhabit the stomach of the horse, give the 

 animal any pain, for they have fastened on the cuticular and insensible 

 coat. They cannot be injurious to the horse, for he enjoys 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 conveyed ; and 

 if they were, their mouths are too deeply buried in the mucus for any 

 medicine, that can be safely administered, to affect them ; and, last of 

 all, in due course of time they detach themselves, and come away. 

 Therefore the wise man will leave them to themselves, or content him- 

 self with picking them off when they collect under the tail and annoy 

 the animal. 



The smaller bot,/and r/, is not so frequently found. 



Wind-Galls. — In the neighborhood of the fetlock there are occasion- 

 ally found considerable enlargements, oftener on the hind leg than the 

 fore one, which are denominated wind-galls. Between the tendons and 

 other parts, and wherever the tendons are exposed to pressure or friction, 

 and particularly about their extremities, little bags or sacs are placed, 

 containing, and suffering to ooze slowl}^ from them, a mucous fluid to 

 lubricate (make slippery) the parts. From undue pressure, and that 

 most frequently caused by violent action and straining of the tendons, 

 or often from some predisposition about the horse, these little sacs are 

 injured. They take on inflammation and sometimes become large and 

 hardened. There are few horses perfectly free from them. When they 

 first appear, and until the inflammation subsides, they may be accompa- 

 nied by some degree of lameness; but otherwise, except when they at- 

 tain a great size, they do not interfere with the action of the animal, or 

 cause any considerable unsoundness. The farriers used to suppose that 

 they contained wind — hence their name, wind-galls ; and hence the 

 practice of opening them, by which dreadful inflammation was often 



