THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 127 



through the walls of the stomach. This we deny in toto, at least 

 while the horse is alive. The little creature is too comfortably 

 located to attempt its exit into a cavity where its destruction 

 would be inevitable. If it be about to vacate its stronghold, 

 instinct teaches it the most safe and expeditious route, which is 

 the alimentary canal. We do not deny that bots are found in the 

 abdominal cavity, for the moment the horse dies all the various 

 organs are subject to the laws of decomposition. Chemical action, 

 which, during life, was regulated by the vital forces, now assumes 

 the supremacy. Those powerful solvents termed the gastric 

 fluids, which had previously dissolved nothing but food, now act 

 on the stomach itself, and hasten its decomposition ; and what had 

 previously been good food for bots is now their bane, and they 

 must themselves in turn be destroyed unless they escape from it. 

 The peristaltic motion of the alimentary canal, which, during the 

 existence of the horse, was so favorable to their exit by that 

 channel, has ceased. They are too well acquainted with the in- 

 tricate, labyrinthian outlet, (their usual route,) to attempt its 

 passage. No. The same energies of one eternal mind, 



" Pervading and instructing all that live," 



suggests the only means of escape. The stomach now offering 

 but little opposition to them, being partly decomposed, they burst 

 their prison-house, and hence are found in the abdominal cavity. 

 And here they may be said to have jumped "from the frying 

 pan into the fire." We are frequently called upon to visit sick 

 horses, said to have the " bots," when there is no more connection 

 between them and the disease than there is between the horse and 

 the anvil on which his shoes are forged. It is all very well for 

 us to say " a horse has the bots," and prescribe some medicine 

 for their expulsion; but there is no practical advantage gained; 

 neither is the horse benefited by such decision or treatment. For 

 most of the remedies used as vermifuges would kill the horse, 

 while the former would not be injured in the slightest degree. 

 Mr. Bracey Clark says, " The slowness of the growth of bots, 

 and the purity of their food, which is probably the chyle, must 

 occasion what they receive in a given time to be proportionably 

 small ; from which, perhaps, arises the extreme difficulty of de- 



