32'i 



BOTS. 



The smaller or fundament bot, ;/, is not so frequently found. The % / 

 . this instance, deposits her eggs on the lips of the horse, and they then 



a and b The eggs of the gad-fly, adhering to tlie hair of the horse. 



c Tlie appearance of the bots on the stomach, firmly adhering by their hooked 

 mouths. 

 The marks or depressions are seen which are left on the coat of the stomach 

 when the bots are detached from their hold. 

 d The bot detached. 



e The female of tlie gad-fly, of the horse, prepared to deposit her eggs. 

 / The gad-fly by which the fundament bot is produced. 

 (/ The smaller, or fundament bot. 



pass through the same stages as the one just described, and quit their 

 habitation at the same season of the year. In their passage with the 

 duno-, however, they not unfrequently adhere to the verge of the anus, 

 and cause a considerable amount of irritation. 



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

 bots seldom, 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 stimulate the stomach, and increase its digestive power, for 

 they are not on the digestive portion of the stomach. They cannot, by 

 their roughness, assist the ti'ituration or rubbing down of the food, for no 

 such office is performed in that part of the stomach — the food is softened, 

 not rubbed down. They are rarely 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 safely be 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 himself with pick- 

 ing them off when they collect under the tail and annoy the animal. 



SPASMODIC COLIC. 



The passage of the food through the intestinal canal is effected by the 

 alternate contraction and relaxation of the muscular coat of the intestines. 

 When that action is simply increased through the whole of the canal, the 

 food passes more rapidly, and purging is produced; but the muscles of 

 every part of the frame are liable to irregular and spasmodic action, and 



