WORMS. 271 



presence. The sulphate of iron is a blood-forming 

 tonic. As the stomach recovers its proper tone 

 the worms die. The physic clears them out. 



There are two or three different kinds of worms 

 to which horses are subject. As the treatment is 

 the same for all, I need not go further into the 

 matter here than to remark that those which are 

 termed 'bots ' (and which come from the gadfly), are 

 the most troublesome, inasmuch as they fix them- 

 selves into the coats of the stomach. 



It is possible that horses take them in when at 

 grass, or that they may come with the use of green 

 forage. The coats of horses at grass are often 

 covered with little yellow lumps. These are 

 supposed to be the eggs of the gadfly, and it is 

 asserted that horses, in licking their coats, swallow 

 these eggs, and that they hatch inside their 

 stomachs, and so they suffer from bots. This may 

 or may not be the case. I only mention it as being 

 an accepted theory by many persons, and I have no 

 reason to doubt it. 



Some horses have an unfortunate habit of 

 eating their bedding, and blow themselves out to 

 an extent which militates very much against their 

 being kept in condition for work. There are 

 only two ways of preventing this : the one, by 

 putting them on bedding which they cannot eat, 



