THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS 157 



be present in large quantities in the alimentary canal without causing 

 any disturbance or derangement to the system, and without any 

 external sign to denote their presence ; but when really very 

 numerous they cause great emaciation, particularly during the winter 

 and early spring months, when the following symptoms may be 

 noticed : Staring coat, irregular appetite, dulness, languor, legs 

 trailed on moving, belly tucked up, with occasional diarrhoea, and a 

 great loss of flesh. If, on examination, nothing can be found to 

 account for the poor anaemic condition of the horse, it may be con- 

 cluded that worms are the cause, more particularly if the animal has 

 been out grazing on an unsound pasture, or if the autumn months 

 have been wet. Tape-worms are rarely found in the horse. 

 Treatment. — Two ounces of turpentine mixed with 1 pint of linseed 

 oil can be given every seventh or eighth day until four doses are 

 given, and in the interval give every other night in the food one 

 tablespoonful each of flowers of sulphur and common salt, and 

 1 drachm of sulphate of iron {par. 1074, No. II.). Good nutritious 

 food, such as boiled barley and bran, eggs and milk mixed, also 

 linseed jellies, should be given, with milk to drink. The strength 

 must be kept up by nutritious and easily digestible foods. 



254. From personal observation, I am led to hold the opinion 



that the ova or eggs from which some of these parasites are developed 



are deposited on the ground, along with the dung, during the summer 



months, and that they undergo some transformation outside of the 



body of the host, in which they are fully developed. For after wet 



seasons horses out at grass during August and September are 



generally found affected with worms and parasites, which show their 



effects in winter and early spring. November is, therefore, the 



proper time to treat such cases, before they become too well 



developed. One tablespoonful each of flowers of sulphur and common 



salt should be given in a mash of oats and bran once every day 



every alternate fortnight, both in the stable and at grass during the 



winter months. The land on which the animals pasture should be 



dressed with roughly crushed rock-salt — say, 8 to 10 hundredweight 



per acre. Although salt is the best and safest germicide we have in 



