158 INTliOSUSCEPTION OF THE CAECUM, &C. 
thought had been produced by the cold water they had so freely 
drank on the preceding night. If spasm is produced by water- 
ing horses in the middle of the day, it is not of so much import- 
ance; but if it happens at night it is of more serious consequence, 
as they are left entirely alone for the whole night, and perhaps out 
of hearing ; and even if a noise is heard in the stable, it is only 
attributed, probably, to the habit that some horses have of stamp- 
ing with their feet. As to the species of worms, they are certainly 
new to me, not having met with any thing like them before. I 
have shewn them to two medical gentlemen, who said they were 
not to be found in the human subject. 
In the different editions of <c White’s Compendium of Cattle 
Medicine,” will be found, when treating on the diseases of dogs, 
under the head “ worms,” the only account like them that I can 
meet with in veterinary authors, and which I will transcribe, 
viz. : — 
" I have met with different kinds of worms in dogs ; but most 
commonly with the tape-worm, and another that I have named 
the ribbon worm, from some resemblance it bears to a very nar- 
row white ribbon, the transverse threads of which are most con- 
spicuous. On examining the worm, however, with a magnifying 
glass, these transverse lines appear as scales placed nearly per- 
pendicularly and inclined a little backwards. One end of the 
worm has a bulbous appearance, and with this it attaches itself 
to the bowels ; the other end is flat and square. I have lately 
had some of these worms brought to me that were voided by a 
man ; he called them blood worms ; and from some that I have 
seen, it appears that they do sometimes suck blood from the 
bowels. They may, therefore, be considered, perhaps, as a species 
of leech ; and as they have been seen in a stream of clear water, 
it is probable that they are taken in the stomach with the water 
the animal drinks. 
“ This subject is of importance ; for I have discovered that, in a 
village where I have occasionally resided, named Oak-hill, where 
all the water with w'hich the inhabitants are supplied flows over 
the surface through fields, the inhabitants are very subject to 
worms, and several of them to tape worms, and that many of 
their domestic animals are infested with this small species of 
leech worm. I have found the small leech worm after death in 
the small intestines of their domestic animals; even in the dog 
and cat. Horses I find, especially when affected with mesenteric 
consumption, have generally got them. The longest leech worms 
are those found in the bowels of the dog and the cat, where they 
are well supplied with chyle, though the habitation is much 
smaller. In the consumptive horse they are generally small, and 
