176 DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 



find nose, as the shoulders, within the fore legs, &c. ; to do 

 -which tlie fly is seen to hold her body ujiright when preparing 

 an 62:2; : she rests for a moment on the horse, and fixes it to 

 the hair by means of a viscid gluten ; after which she again 

 rises, and prepares another, until some hundreds are so de- 

 posited. These ova, or egg botts, form the little yellow 

 granules so commonly observed adhering to the hairs of 

 horses at trrass in the summer." The oestrus hemorrlioidalis, 

 he informs us, deposits her eggs on the nose of the horse ; 

 while the luethods of the veterinus and salutiferus are not at 

 present understood. These ova having become hatched are, 

 by various accidents, as by the horse licicing himself, or nabbing 

 others, carried into the stomach, where they instinctively attach 

 themselves to the cuticular portion, very few ever reaching the 

 villous or sensible part, — to which we must, in a great mea- 

 sure, attribute their innocuous character. To enable these 

 animals to resist the effects of alimentary friction, they are fur- 

 nished with two tentacular, or hooks, of extraordinary tenacity, 

 between which is situated their mouth, by whicli they suck up 

 the gastric secretions. Entering their abdominal habitation in 

 the summer, the botts soon gain their full size, and continue 

 Avithin the hoi'se until the following spring, when, instinctively 

 loosening their hold, they are passed along the intestinal canal 

 and ejected with the dung, preparatory to their change from 

 larvae into chrysalides, and from thence into parent flies. 



Mr. Feron observes, that " common oil, given in large quan- 

 tities, has sometimes succeeded in detaching botts from the 

 stomach ; and, indeed,, it is the only remedy that seems to have 

 any effect in making them loose their hold from the stomach, on 

 account of its having, as may reasonably be supposed, a poisonous 

 effect on that insect." 



The next kind of worm to be described is that named teres 

 lumhiHcus, or round worm. It is found in the small intestines, 

 and sometimes, though seldom, in the stomach. In the last case 

 in which I found these worms in the stomach, the horse had been 

 very subject to flatulent colic, or gripes, of which at last he died. 

 He generally had an attack of this disorder two or three times a 

 week. I once saw this horse labouring under an attack of gripes. 

 He had taken a dose of the anodyne carminative tincture without 

 being relieved. I prescribed four ounces of oil of turpentine, 

 which cured him in a short time. I had no suspicion of the 

 horse beinsr troubled with worms: had that circumstance been 

 known, and another dose of turpentine given, after keeping the 

 horse chiefly on bran mashes for one day, and fasting him one 

 night, it is probable, I think, that all of them would have been 

 swept off. These worms arc wliite, and from six to ten inches 

 in length. 



