DYSPEPSIA— BOTS. 355 



does, in the majority of horses, which are kept in the stable on 

 the same kind of food, always from July to May, and often 

 through the other months also. The use of a few small bundles 

 of vetches, lucerne, or clover in the spring, is supposed to be 

 quite sufficient to restore tone to the stomach, and undoubtedly 

 they are better than no change at allj but at other seasons of the 

 year something may be done towards the prevention of dyspepsia, 

 by varying the quality of the hay, and by the use of a few carrots 

 once or twice a week. In many stables, one rick of hay is made 

 to serve throughout the whole or a great part of the year, which 

 is a very bad plan, as a change in this important article of food is 

 as much required as a change of pasture when the animal is at 

 grass. When attention is paid to this circumstance, the appetite 

 will seldom fail in horses of a good constitution, if they are regu- 

 larly worked ; but without it, resort must occasionally be had to a 

 dose of physic. It is from a neglect of this precaution that so many 

 horses take to eat their litter, in preference to their hay ; for if the 

 same animal was placed in a straw-yard, without hay, for a month, 

 and then allowed access to both, there would be little doubt that he 

 would prefer the latter. Some horses are naturally so voracious, 

 that they are always obliged to be supplied with less than they 

 desire, and they seldom suffer from loss of appetite; but delicate 

 feeders require the greatest care in their management. When the 

 stomach suffers in this way, it is always desirable to try what a 

 complete change of food will do before resorting to medicine ; and, 

 if it can be obtained, green food of some kind should be chosen, 

 or if not, carrots, or even steamed potatoes. In place of hay, 

 sound wheat or barley straw may be cut into chaff, and mixed 

 with the carrots and corn; and to this a little malt-dust may be 

 added, once or twice a week, so as to alter the flavor. By con- 

 tinually changing the food in this way, the most dyspeptic 

 stomach may often be restored to its proper tone, without doing 

 harm with one hand while the other is doing good, as is too often 

 the case with medicine. The use of the fashionable ^' horse- 

 feeds " of the present day will serve the same purpose ; and if 

 the slight changes I have mentioned do not answer, Thorley's or 

 Henri's food may be tried with great probability of success. 



BOTS. 



The larv^ of the oestrus eqiii, a species of gadfly, are often 

 found in large numbers, attached by a pair of hooks with which 

 they are provided, to the cardiac extremity of the stomach ; they 

 are very rarely met with in the true digestive portion of this 

 organ, but sometimes in the duodenum or jejunum in small numbers. 

 A group of these larvae, which are popularly called bots, are repre- 

 sented on the next page, but sometimes nearly all the cardiac ex- 



