302 CESTRIDuE — BOT-FLIES. 



Oestridae— Bot-flies. 



The larvii3 of Bots, CE.^tris ov/s, found in the heads of 

 sheep and goats, have been prescribed, and that, from the tri- 

 pod of Delphos, as a remedy for the epilepsy. We are told 

 so on the authority of Alexander Trallien ; but whether 

 Deraocritus, who consulted the oracle, was cured by this 

 remedy, does not appear; the story shows, however, that 

 the ancients were aware that these mag^rots made their way 

 even into the brain of living animals.^ The oracle answered 

 Democritus as follows : 



Take a tame goat that hatli the greatest head, 

 Or else a wilde goat in the field that's bred. 

 And in his forehead a great worm you'l finde, 

 This cures all diseases of that kinde. ^ 



The common saying that a whimsical person is maggoty, 

 or has got maggots in his head, perhaps arose from the 

 freaks the sheep have been observed to exhibit when in- 

 fested by their Bots.^ 



The following "charme for the Bots* in a horse" is 

 found in Scots' Discovery of Witchcraft, printed in 1651: 

 "You must both say and do thus upon the diseased horse 

 three days together, before the sun rising: In nomine paf- 

 tris & fi\lii & Spiritus-\sancti, Exorcize te vermen per 

 Deum pa-ftreni & fi^tium & Spiritwn-f sanctum : that is. In 

 the name of God the father, the sonne, and the Holy Ghost, 

 I conjure thee worm bv God, the Father, the sonne, and 

 the Holy Ghost; that thou neither eate nor drink the flesh, 

 blood, or bones of this horse; and that thou hereby maiest 

 be made as patient as Job, and as good as S. John Baptist, 

 when he baptized Christ in Jordan, In nomine pa-\tris & 

 fi-\lii et sjnritus-fsancti. And then say three Pater nosters, 

 and three Aves, in the right eare of the horse, to the glory 

 of the holy trinity. Dofminus filifus spiritfus Marifa."^ 



There is a popular error in England respecting the (Estrus 

 (Gasterophilus) equi {haenwrrhoidalis), which Shakspeare 



1 Kirb. and Sp. Introd., i. 158. 



2 Theatr. Ins., p. 284. Topsel's nist. of Beasts, p 1107, 1122. 



3 Kirby and Spence, Introd., i. 158. 

 * Gasterophilus equi. 



6 Keg. Scot's Disc, of Witchcraft, p. 179. 



