AVORMS. 



o3l 



entanglement of the intestines, bnt m the animal they were diawn into a 

 tight knot, and completely intercepted all passage. 



WORMS. 



Worms of diflFerent kinds inhabit the intestines ; but, except when they 

 exist in very great numbers, they are not so hurtful as is generally sup- 

 posed, although the groom or carter may trace to them hidebound, and 

 cough, and loss of appetite, and gripes, and megrims, and a variety of 

 other ailments. Of the origin or mode of jjropagation of these parasitical 

 animals we can say little ; neither writei's on medicine, nor even on natural 

 history, have given us any satisfactory account of the matter. 



The long white worm (himhricus teres), much resembling the common 

 earth-worm, and being from six to ten inches in length, inhabits the 

 small intestines. It is a formidable-looking animal, and if there are many 

 of them they may consume more than can be spared of the nutritive part 

 of the food or the mucus of the bowels. A tight skin, and rough coat, and 

 tucked up belly, are sometimes connected mth their presence. They are 

 then, however, voided in large quantities. 



A smaller, darker-coloured worm, called the needle-worm, or ascaris 

 rermicularis, inhabits the large intestines. Hundreds of them sometimes 

 descend into the rectum, and immense quantities have been found in the 

 ceecum. These are a more serious nuisance than the former, for they 

 cause a very troublesome irritation about the fundament, wluch sometimes 

 sadly annoj'S the horse. 



In the treatment for the expulsion of worms an immense variety of 

 remedies have been employed, many of Avhich are calculated to do serious 

 mischief to the animal. Large doses of aloes, calomel, tartar emetic, 

 arsenic, corrosive sublimate, powdered glass, pewter tin scraped fine, &c.. 

 have each had their advocates as vermifuges. But in the treatment for 

 the removal of these parasites it should not be forgotten that the intestinal 

 canal is their natural habitation, and unless from some peciiliarity of the 

 system they accumulate in large quantities, they are not likely to produce 



