258 THE OX AND THE DAIEY. 



surgeon excepted) but a respectable chemist. Before using 

 it the animal must be well washed with soap and water, by 

 means of a hard brush ; the lotion may then be applied in 

 small quantities, and not at once, over an extensive surface, 

 lest mischief occur. We cannot, however, conclude, without 

 strongly advising the farmer to have nothing to do with it 

 himself, nor to allow it to be applied by the cow-leech. The 

 veterinary surgeon will avail himself of it, only when all other 

 means have failed, and knowing the danger, will act with due 

 caution. 



When cattle are infested with lice alone, these may be 

 destroyed by an ointment consisting of four or five ounces of 

 sulphur, four ounces of turpentine, and twelve ounces of 

 linseed oil. It is said that the powder of stavesacre, mixed 

 with lard and train oil, will kill these parasites. It is gene- 

 rally believed that the mange in cattle, like the scab in sheep, 

 and the itch in the human subject, is immediately caused by 

 the presence of numbers of a peculiar species of mite (acarus), 

 which produce minute pustules in the skin, within which 

 they live and multiply, and thus extend the disease from one 

 part to another: they are tiny skin-burrowers, tormenting 

 the animal, and feeding on the serum or water within the 

 pustules, caused by their irritating presence. Though this 

 is true with respect to the human subject and the sheep, we 

 do not know whether these minute parasites have been demon- 

 strated in the skin of horned cattle. 



WABBLES. 



Waroles are tumours on the skin of cattle, produced by the 

 presence of the larvae or maggots of a species of gad-fly, or 

 breeze (CEstrus Bovis, Clark ; Hypoderma Boms, Latr.), a dip- 

 terous insect, notorious in ancient as well as in modern days, 

 and which the Eomans, as Virgil states, termed asilus ; the 

 Greeks, oestrus. 



Farmers are mostly careless about warbles ; but these sup- 

 purating tumours render the hide of the beast less valuable 

 to the tanner; so that, if for no other reason, the larvae 

 should be destroyed : the best way is by crushing them, and 

 pressing them out with the finger. It is some time after the 

 destruction and expulsion of the larva that the cell is filled 

 up ; even then a weakness and a disposition to crack remain 

 for a long period. 



