32 DISEASES OF HORSES AND CATTLE. 



hold and pass out of the stomach into the intes- 

 tines and are carried out with the contents of the 

 bowel. They usually lie quiet for* an hour or so, 

 then will crawl* into some safe place, where they 

 remain in the form of a chrysalis, the skin becom- 

 ing shell-like. The further change in the chrysalis 

 takes place about the eighteenth or nineteenth day, 

 when the shell bursts and the fly comes out strong 

 in wing and limb. The question is often asked, 

 do bots do any harm to the horse? Veterinary 

 surgeons are agreed on this, that they do not, un- 

 less they are over-crowded and pushed to other 

 parts of the stomach or intestines, where they may 

 interfere with digestion. There are very few cases 

 reported where the bot was the direct cause of 

 death. The idea that bots eat the stomach is a 

 mistake. As they have no mouths, this cannot be 

 possible. I have been told by farmers that have 

 opened a horse which had died from acute indiges- 

 tion or inflammation, that they found on opening 

 the stomach that the red lining had been eaten off 

 the left half of the stomach by the bots. If they 

 had known that the left half had no red lining they 

 would not have charged the bots with eating it. 

 There is no medicine that will kill bots that can 

 be uiven to the horse without destroying the stom- 

 ach. 



Impaction of the Stomach in the Horse. — This is 

 a very common and very fatal derangement caused 

 by the animal eating too much food; the result is 

 distention of the stomach, preventing it from con- 

 tracting on its contents. The food swells and fer- 



