THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 125 



Balsam copaiba, £ ounce, 



Sweet spirits of nitre, .... 2 drachms, 

 Flaxseed tea, 1 pint. 



Mares are not subject to this difficulty. 



DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE CAVITY AND ITS SURFACES. 



BOTS. 



The following cut is a representation of a cluster of bots found 

 in the stomach of a horse after death. "We were informed by the 

 owner that the horse had for several months been subject to 

 staggers, (vertigo.) During this period, his appetite failed, and 

 the animal gradually lost flesh, and was at last unable to perform 

 the least work without profuse perspiration. Finally, the horse 

 lost so much flesh that he appeared like a walking skeleton, and 

 the owner ordered him to be killed. Being in the vicinity at the 

 time of death, we made a post mortem examination, and found 

 the bots as represented. The internal surface of the stomach 

 and alimentary canal was blanched, indicating indigestion. The 

 lungs, spleen, liver, and kidneys were in a comparatively normal 

 state. The external appearances were decidedly those of gen- 

 eral emaciation, and, in our humble opinion, the horse, by a 

 judicious system of medication, might have been saved. " The 

 horse had been doctored for bots," without any regard to the 

 general health, which should have been improved by the use of 

 tonics, stimulants, and alteratives, after which vermifuges might 

 have been ventured on. If the bots, as we suspect, presented in 

 part only a mechanical obstruction to the passage of food into the 

 stomach, his strength might have been preserved by a daily 

 allowance of flour gruel and by nutritious injections. The bots, 

 generally speaking, are not so troublesome to horses as people 

 seem to suppose ; for it is very rare, in making post mortem ex- 

 aminations, that we do not find more or less in the stomach. We 

 have heard some wonderful stories related of the bots burrowing 

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