204 STOMACH BOTS. 



when purchased, but neither of the three gained condition 

 during the winter after I bought them. Their legs swelled, 

 they could not stand work, were weak and rough, and I lost 

 time and money, simply, I believe, because these horses could 

 not thrive with the accumulation of bots in their stomach. 

 So far, the circumstances of these accidental experiments 

 were most favourable to enable me to draw natural conclu- 

 sions, as the horses purchased at different periods were much 

 of the same age, indeed, in this respect, one of the last pur- 

 chase had the advantage; they were of the same breed; the 

 quality of food in either case was in no way calculated to 

 make great difference in their condition, but the first lot had 

 been housed until the bots had left the system not to enter it 

 again, and in the other horses the cestri existed for the first 

 eight or nine months that I had them in my possession. 



" It was in the years 1850, 1851, and 1852 that I bought, 

 at different intervals, many young horses from the pastures 

 in the Roman States, and the part of Tuscany near Leghorn 

 Some of these I kept long enough for observation, viz., from 

 a few months to two years, and I procured bots in abun- 

 dance, and observed the changes from larvae to fly, and the 

 peculiar habits of the latter." 



No method of treatment is calculated to displace the bots, 

 and a knowledge of their effects is valuable only to enable 

 us to judge as to the prudence of exposing horses at 

 grass certain seasons of the year and when bots are abun- 

 dant. The safest rule to follow, I think, is to avoid the in- 

 troduction of the parasites into the stomachs of horses by 

 means which are so well suggested from the facts above 

 adduced. 



