DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS. It>7 



uas, ut various times, purposely swallowed large draughts of water 

 containing myriads of animalculse, without ever perceiving any 

 effect; and he combats the notion that diseases are produced 01 

 propagated by these parasites taken into the body. The most 

 curious feature in the history of parasites is their extraordinary 

 powers of multiplication, which is doubted by some; but it is well 

 known to others that some species are capable of producing a 

 hundred repetitions of themselves, and the process can be repeated 

 ton times in a season. The common white ant is capable of de- 

 positing eggs at the rate of 80,000 per day, for several successive 

 yeeks, and the common flesh-maggot can be generated by the 

 million in the course of a few hours ; and as regards growth and 

 development, the common flesh-fly and the caterpillar increase in 

 weight 200 times in the course of twenty-four hours. 



But the bot is a creature that does not multiply nor increase in 

 bulk at this rapid rate. He may be said to be a " slow coach," 

 and when once located in the stomach of a horse, he generally 

 makes it his abode for a season, at least. He is a sort of aristo- 

 cratic entozoa. He lives in the upper region, the stomach. He 

 seldom condescends to mix with the lower orders that infest the 

 alimentary regions. The little creature seems to exercise consid- 

 erable tact in selecting his location. Although he has but a squat- 

 ter's title to it, yet it is the best and safest in the whole diggings. 

 He is in the upper part of the stomach, where the fluids (poisons 

 or medicines) with which you are about to coax or drive him off, 

 are inoperative, (for they merely give him a sort of shower-bath,) 

 and pass immediately through the stomach into the intestines, 

 where all the fluid a horse drinks is generally found ; therefore 

 they can not act on the bot. Then, again, he is located on the 

 cuticular coat of the stomach, a membrane as insensible as the 

 horse's hoof, and, therefore, not liable to become diseased, nor to be 

 acted on by either medicine or bot nostrums. You may kill the 

 horse by the same, but the bot, being within his own castle, can 

 refuse whatever you offer him. 



AVe can not make medicine act on the external surface of the 

 hot, for it does not absorb fluid ; it is impervious. These crea- 

 tures have been put into muriatic acid, and kept there for a time, 

 without being injured. You may put them into new rum, and 

 keep them f or weeks, and, on taking them out and exposing them 

 to the » ^ cays, they will manifest vitality. 



