45 



weeks, be found to have fleuks in their liver, but which 

 is prevented by the frost destroying the larva on the grass. 

 I am quite aware that many other scientific objections may 

 fairly be made against my idea ; such as that the worm or 

 grub, a cold-blooded creature, intended to live in common 

 atmospheric air, could not exist in the inside of any animal. 

 Bots, so common in horses laying out at. grass, it is well 

 known, are produced from the horses biting each other, in 

 kind fellowship, about their manes, where some sort of fly 

 or moth had deposited its eggs or nits, which the horses 

 thus get into their mouths and stomachs, where they 

 become bots, and make their appearance in the horses' 

 fundaments. It cannot be supposed that instinct points to 

 the moth or fly to leave its egg there for the purpose of its 

 getting into the horse's stomach ; it appears to me that 

 it probably only leaves it on that part from finding a saliva 

 there from the playful biting of another horse. Hearing a 

 farmer complain, in the year 1814, of the great loss he had 

 sustained by the rot in his sheep. I recommended him to 

 try Armitage's remedy ; he had no faith in any of the 

 nostrums, it was however agreed between us, that as I was 

 going to London the next day, I should bring a sufficient 

 quantity for a score of sheep, which he was to take on my 

 return, or sell me a score of his sheep for ten pounds. He 

 sent me the sheep. Our farms were divided only by a 

 small brook, but the sheep having to walk a mile to get to 

 my farm, two of -them died in that mile. I dosed the 

 eighteen according to directions. Sixteen soon seemed more 

 lively for it ; to the two that did not, I gave the medicine 

 I had to spare, which proved to be over-dosing them, and 

 consequently killed them. Thirteen of the others I made 

 fat in the summer, sent them to London, and made about 

 forty-seven shillings a head. One proved what is here 

 called a rubber, which no feeding will make fat; one was 

 drowned. To see what sort of mutton the best was, 1 had one 

 killed and consumed (all but one leg, which I sent to the 

 farmer), in my own family, who knew nothing of the cir- 

 cumstances attending it, and therefore found no fault with 

 the meat ; but some one, I recollect, commended some 

 joint, as being very tender. The farmer could scarcely 

 believe that the leg of mutton 1 sent him could have come 



