WORMS. 175 



CHAP. XXXY. 



WORMS. 



Worms are most commonly found in the bowels and stomach ; 

 but they are sometimes met with also in ahnost every part of the 

 body. I have found them in the windpipe, in the mesenteric 

 artery, in an abscess, in the substance of the abdominal muscles ; 

 and, according to Lafosse, they have been found also in the pan- 

 creatic and salivary ducts. The worms commonly found in the 

 stomach are named botts. They are generally attached to the 

 cuticular or insensible coat of the stomach ; but sometimes 

 clusters of them are found at the pylorus, and even in the 

 beginning of the first intestine, named duodenum. In one case 

 they were so numerous in this last situation as to obstruct the 

 passage completely, and cause the animal's death. Botts are 

 short, thick, reddish Avorms, surrounded with short prickles, 

 which are arranged in circular bands all over the body. They 

 attach themselves firmly by two hooks, which they appear to 

 have the power of straightening and retracting, of projecting and 

 curvating. They are extremely tenacious of life, and difficult 

 to be expelled fi-om the stomach, except about the month of Sep- 

 tember, or when a horse is first taken up from grass. At this 

 period they may generally be got rid of by brine, or a solution 

 of common salt and water, in a dose of from four to five ounces 

 of salt to a quart of water. The horse should be kept fasting 

 the night befure it is given ; and about five minutes before the 

 drench with salt is given, let the horse be drenched with about 

 a pint of warm milk, sweetened with honey or treacle. 



It has been supposed that botts are not only innocent, but 

 even beneficial, from their being so frequently found in the 

 horse's stomach after death, when during the animal's life no in- 

 convenience was observed to arise from them. That they are 

 sometimes injurious, however, and fatally so, has been clearly 

 demonstrated by several cases that have come under my observ- 

 ation. They have been known to ulcerate and make holes in 

 the stomach. Gibson, a most respectable veterinary author, 

 consider'! them as sometimes the cause of locked jaw ; and 

 Mr. James Clarke, of Edinburgh, has recorded one case in 

 Avhich they had made an opening through the horse's stomach 

 into the abdomen. 



Mr. Bracey Clark, in his Treatise on the Botts of Plorses, 

 considers that there are four species ; and he says, " that the 

 parent fly of the cesfn/s cqui deposits its ova on the hairs of 

 such parts of the horse as are within the reach of his mouth 



