n6 LETTER TO MR. MEDD [CHAP. xiv. 



can spare time you would look in on us here for a couple 

 of nights ; I am sure that with our old Abbey and the many 

 things of interest here, and some chat which you would let 

 us have between whiles, the time would not lag. There 

 are both pleasure and benefit in the work you allow me 

 a part in. Pray believe me always, with kind regards and 

 good wishes from us both. 



Yours sincerely, 



ELEANOR A. ORMEROD. 



[On the warble question Miss Ormerod wrote on April 

 22, 1899, to Dr. Fletcher 1 : 



" Just now I am working hard on Warble affairs. The 

 butchers (that is, leading men among them) very much wish 

 that what is called 'licked ' beef should be inquired into. 

 I do not know whether you are troubled by this in Canada, 

 but it is an alteration that takes place on the outside of the 

 carcass of the animal beneath a badly warbled part of the 

 hide. This part becomes soft and wet and blackish, and is 

 popularly supposed to be soaked with moisture from the 

 unlucky animal licking itself to soothe the irritation. Really 

 it is the result of the chronic inflammation of the badly 

 warbled hide. This causes much loss to butchers, and if I 

 can get it well brought forward I think we shall through 

 this rouse the farmers to better attention. The authorities 

 at our Royal Veterinary College are most kindly helping 

 me, and I hope before long to have enough sound informa- 

 tion to be able to publish a paper on it." 



To Mr. Medd 2 Miss Ormerod also wrote in Nov., 1900 : 

 " Do you chance to have noticed that the Warble fly of 

 the United States, the Hypoderma lineata, is considered to be 

 quite a distinct species to our H. boms f I believe that 

 investigation has proved that our bovis is very rarely found 

 in the U.S.A., just as their lineata is very rarely, indeed, 

 found here. Practically (that is, so far as injury to the hide 

 is concerned), the trouble is similar, both in method of 

 operation and in the frightful amount of damage caused ; 

 but it has been laid down by good U.S.A. authorities that in 

 the case of their Warble fly, lineata, the attack is com- 

 menced by the quite embryo maggots making their way by 

 the mouth to the gullet and there hanging on until it pleases 

 them to make their way onward, by piercing through the 

 coat of the oesophagus and onward through the tissues of 



1 See Chaps, xix.-xx. for letters to Dr. Fletcher. 2 See Chap. xxii. 



