ItiS DADO'S VETERINARY MEIUCIJS'E AND SURGERV. 



We often hear wonderful stories related of bots burrowing 

 tnrougli the coats of the stomach. This, we think, rarely takes 

 place while the horse is alive. That cavity is the home of th? 

 bot, its natural habitation; for we know of no other. Here it 

 generally remains until it is capable of exercising an independent 

 existence. In this situation the little creature is too comfortabl} 

 located to burrow through the stomach into a cavity where ii 

 might perish for want of food. If the time has arrived for it to 

 vacate its stronghold, instinct teaches it the most safe and expe- 

 ditious route, which is through the alimentary canal. Turn a 

 horse out to grass in the spring, or give him some green fodder in 

 the stable, and the bots will soon leave him, if they are matured ; 

 otherwise they must remain until that period arrives, unless 

 Nature has some work for them to perform. vVe shall not contend 

 that bots are never found in the abdominal cavity, for some per- 

 sons have testified to the fact; but, during a practice of several 

 years, and having opportunities of making many post-mortem 

 examinations, we have not yet been able to observe the phenom- 

 ena, except in cases of ruptured stomach. Still, a few solitary 

 cases are on record, and hence it remains for us to explain how 

 they got there. 



We all know that the moment a horse dies his whole body \a 

 subject to the common law of decomposition ; but the central or- 

 gans, where the greatest activity prevailed during life, are gener- 

 ally the first to succumb. Our business is with the stomach, the 

 great chemical laboratory, the center of sympathies — an organ 

 that is very seldom permitted to rest, consequently an active oik;. 

 Its powerful solvents, during life, were busy in transforming hay 

 and grain into chyme, chyle, and blood ; but now that death has 

 the victory, the gastric fluid acts on the coats of the stomach, and 

 thus its decomposition is effected; so that what was previously 

 good food for bots is now their bane, and, unless they escape, their 

 death is sure and certain. 



The peristaltic motion of the intestines, which favored the exit 

 of the bots through that channel, has ceased; they are too well 

 acquainted with its intricate labyrinthian outlet (their usual route) 

 to even attempt its passage. No ! the same energies of one Eternal 

 Mind, " pervading and instructing all that live," suggests the 

 only means o** escape from threatening dangers. Th'e stomach 

 being partly decomposed, offers but little opposition to their en- 



