99 



mortem exhibits patches of congestive inflammation of the stomach, and 

 of the intestinal canal. In vegetable poisoning, such as from eating 

 rhododendron, yew, &c., the half-dried twigs of which are more 

 dangerous than the green growing branches, the animal exhibits little 

 or no pain, but suffers greatly from sickness, accompanied by coma, 

 whilst death is very sudden. Treatment : Give half-pint doses of 

 brandy, mixed in one pint of hot coffee ; or a table-spoonful of 

 carbonate of soda and one wine-glassful of aromatic spirits of ammonia, 

 given in one pint of cold water, every five or six hours, and followed up 

 by one pint of raw linseed oil. The post moytem in cases of vegetable 

 poisoning reveals the lining of the stomach to be much paler than 

 normal, without any signs of inflammation, unless the plants are of an 

 acrid nature, when congestive inflammatory patches are seen. 

 Further reference is made to vegetable poisoning in the Sixth Lecture 

 — The Digestive Organs, Part II. 



252. Bots (Plate XXXVII., Nos. 7, 8, 9J.- Amongst horses in the 

 country, the stomach is very often infested with these small grubs — 

 the larvae of the gad-fly — (much resembling the bumble-bee), which 

 deposits its eggs at hay and harvest time, in little yellow tenacious 

 spots on the horse's fore legs or shoulders. The eggs are hatched by 

 the heat of the body, and this causes an itching sensation at the root 

 of the particular hair to which each eo;g is attached ; in consequence 

 of this, the horse licks the parts, and the ova, thus gaining the mouth, 

 pass into the stomach, and fasten themselves on to the cuticular, 

 rarely the villous, portion of it. It is only in the horse's stomach 

 that these larvae will develop, this being their proper winter habitat. 

 Here, then, the ova turn into larvae, or grubs, which, when spring 

 comes again, loosen their hold, pass away with the faeces, and fall 

 upon the ground, when they turn into chrysalides, and, in due course 

 of time, form the perfect fly — CEstnis Eqiii — ready to perform another 

 circular tour. A large number and variety of medicines have, from 

 time to time, been tried, }7et there is no real known remedy for bots. 

 They seldom cause the death of a horse, as nature thickens the coats 

 of that part of the stomach to which they are attached, so that they 

 cannot get through. Sometimes, however, after leaving the stomach, 



