176 DAUIVS VETEIUINARY MEDICINE AND eah.xiEJ.1. 



some cause or other. A man or animal may oe diseoaed witlicul 

 our expression of the manner in which either are atfeoted, just ai 

 a flower may be said to be colored without designat'ng its partlc- 

 alar hue. In each case we receive definite, alth' ugh negative, 

 ideas — in the one, that the creature is not in healtl: ; in the other, 

 that the flower is not colorless. And so the same reasoning may 

 apply when bots become the subject of our consi( eration. In a 

 given case, they may prove injurious (according to our ideas), and 

 in another they may remain, for a certain length oi time, perfoctl/ 

 harmless ; so that the animal infected or infested i lay or may not 

 suffer any infliction, but trot on through the joui ney of life just 

 as long as horse-life is worth wearing. 



As reorards the several modes of death to horse flesh, in which 

 bots are said to play an active part, they may thus be stated: 

 Bots sometimes congregate, in large numbers, at the superior or 

 inferior inlet or outlet of the stomach, and thus produce mechan- 

 ical obstruction to the passage of both semi-fluidji and solids ; and 

 the result is, equine death. The author once held an autopsy 

 which revealed the prf ..ence of a cluster of bots, numbering about 

 one hundred, located in the cardiac region of the oesophagus. 

 They completely obstructed the passage of food into the stomach. 

 The horse died suddenly, as if suffocated, from diu^ension of the 

 oesophagus and pressure on the trachea. 



The following case, furnished for the " Veterinarian " by Sur- 

 geon ]\Iathee, illustrates another mode of death from the pres- 

 ence of bots : 



" The inclosed tongue and larynx I took from a foal this even- 

 ing, which I shall feel obliged to you for examining, as at the base 

 of the tongue you will find about a score of what appear to me to 

 be perfect specimens of a small bot. I have only made a partial 

 examination, as I was anxious to send tlie specimen off to you 

 before it became decomposed, as the weather is very hot. The 

 history of the case is as follows : Two days ago I was requested to 

 go to Lord Glasgow's breeding establishment, to see a foal thai 

 was unwell. I inquired of the stud-groom how long the animal 

 had been ill, and he informed me that three days ago it appeared 

 to have a difficulty in swallowing, and that he noticed some saliva 

 issuing from its mouth ; and that, thinking it had a sore throat, 

 he had rubbed some embrocation upon the parts. On examining 

 tlie animal, I found it in a very debilitated state. Pulse, very 



