OUE DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. Ill 



fistidaris), since the assistance of the veterinary practi- 

 tioner is rarely demanded for the treatment of the 

 disorders they produce. 



If the above summary may be regarded as a tolerably 

 correct interpretation of the views commonly held by the 

 leading members of the veterinary profession, it must be 

 allowed that there is a great deal of sound inference in 

 the statement. 



It assuredly does so happen that bad forms of parasi- 

 tism in the horse are comparatively rare ; and this I take 

 to be due, not so much to the alleged innocuousness of the 

 individual parasites themselves, as to the circumstance 

 that horses are, as a rule, much more closely looked after, 

 in a sanitary sense, than most other animals. The 

 scrupulous cleanliness observed in all large stables is 

 eminently destructive to the welfare of parasites, and 

 the large proportion of dry and artificially-prepared 

 fodder consumed by horses leaves little opportunity for 

 the transference of the ova of cestodes and nematodes, 

 which require a certain amount of moisture for their 

 preservation in the free condition. Moreover, the drink- 

 ing water supplied to horses is, generally speaking, 

 tolerably pure. 



To the foregoing list of equine parasites some others 

 have to be added. Thus, the Filaria lachrymalis infests 

 various parts of the body, and also sometimes the eye 

 itself. The Spiroptera megastoma and Sjpirojptera 

 microstoma occupy the stomach; the former worm 

 occurring in small swellings beneath the mucuous mem- 

 brane, whilst the latter lies free in the cavity. The 

 Onchocerca reticulata encysts itself within various tissues ; 

 whilst three additional species of strongle (Strongylus 

 gig as, 8. micrurus, and 8. tetracanthus) respectively 



