470 Transactions of the American Institute. 



the stomach and hook fast to the coatings, as Mr. Trimble says. But 

 they have no means of biting or eating, but live by suction alone. 

 Mr. "Whitney says a cure is very difficult but not impossible. Bots 

 in their attack produce symptoms as of colic, &c. Now a careful 

 observer will notice in taking out the stomach that the bots, with tliQ 

 exception of a few, are fast in clusters close together in their original 

 position (hooked fast in the coatings of the stomach — not hooked fast 

 by any sudden or recent puncture, perforating the flesh, but actually 

 growing fast) and that under those clusters the coating of the 

 stomach is seemingly healthy and unchanged. If this is the case, do 

 not the bots absorb the poisonous acids at that point ? The stomach 

 being much eaten away by the impure action of the acids, or other- 

 wise, some few of the bots become loosened ; sometimes a dozen or 

 more, and rolling about with the food seemingly helpless. These 

 must be the bots that eat the horse, as I am sure the others do not 

 and cannot. In numy cases the quantity eaten amounts to several 

 pounds, or twenty times the weight of the bots thus loosened. Yora- 

 cious creatures, eating twenty times their weight in thirty minutes. 

 ISTo wonder Mr. Whitney saj's you must be quick. If you want to 

 cnre this supposed disease, give such medicines as will cure inflam- 

 mation of the stomach, bowels, &c. I have relieved them often 

 with a decoction of common or sage tea well sweetened. The 

 doctors here claim there is no such disease as bots, and as doctors 

 agree, I have had the impression that the community at large 

 held the same opinion until reading the remarks of members of 

 your club. I have had an experience of over forty years ; in that 

 time I have cured many and killed as many horses with the sup- 

 posed disease. May I bo forgiven for the many nauseous doses I 

 have improperly prescribed. It may be that we live too far West, 

 and are not up to the times. If so, we will listen with patience. 

 But be assured we will not, without some cogent reason, believe in 

 this bot disease any more than your argument in favor of shallow 

 plowing. 



Mr. George B. Wood, Hamilton, K. Y.— I read with interest and 

 profit the facts published in your Club reports to the inquirer respect- 

 ing bots in horses. I would corroborate Mr. Whitney's remarks as 

 to feeding potatoes as a sure preventive, from an experience and 

 observation of twenty-five years. I would also say, leave the milk 

 and molasses and white oak bark medicine out of the question, as 

 being frequently beyond reach in a severe attack. But take potatoes, 



