234 LARVA IN THE SKIN. 
inactive being, highly agreeable. A division of one of these abscesses, 
when fully matured, is represented in the second cut, page 233. 
Such swellings are acutely painful and prove the sources of much 
annoyance. They mostly occur upon the back. The saddle cannot be 
laid on one of these tumors; and, as the spine supports much of the 
harness, the proprietor has the vexation of beholding his horse rendered 
perfectly useless; for guffering, should service be exacted, occasions the 
creature to excite displeasure; besides, the pranks thus provoked by tor- 
ture often continue after the cause has been removed. 
Upon the summit of the abscess appears a black spot. It is at this 
spot the larva receives the air needed to support a dormant existence. 
This fact being known to certain people, the knowledge is employed to 
destroy the parasite. The swelling is first slightly greased, and then a 
drop of melted tallow is let fall upon the breathing place. By such 
means the insect is effectually suffocated, and assuredly dies. 
Others employ a darning needle as the instrument of execution. The 
ueedle is thrust through the central spot into the swelling for three- 
eighths of an inch. The larva thereby is pierced, and the life certainly 
is sacrificed. 
Neither method occasions at the time the slightest pain to the horse, 
and therefore may by some persons be esteemed highly humane ; but, in 
the end, such plans of cure prove the very reverse. In either case the 
maggot dies; but the business, unfortunately, is only rendered worse by 
killing the source of evil. The dead body putrefies. A foreign and 
corrupting substance beneath the skin may enlarge the abscess to many 
times its original dimensions. After all, the system has to cast forth 
the irritating matter, and for that purpose inflammation, with its attend- 
ant fever, must be perfected. Much suffering is thus occasioned, and 
the proprietor is, for several weeks, forced to forego the employment of 
a valuable servant. 
The safest, the surest, and the quickest manner of eradicating these 
parasites is, with the point of a lancet, slightly to enlarge the central 
opening, and then with the finger and thumb, applied on either side of 
the swelling, to squeeze out the intruder. The abscess rapidly disap- 
pears; and it only requires a few dabbings with the solution of chloride 
of zine, one grain to the ounce, to close the wound. However, the best 
manner to avoid such annoyances is not to endeavor at saving money 
by treating a domesticated animal as though it were an untamed quad- 
ruped. 
