THE HORSE. 
91 
and a small worm escapes, which adheres to the tongue, and is con- 
veyed with the food into the stomach. There it clings to the cuticular 
portion of the stomach, c, by means of a hook on either side of its 
mouth ; and its hold is so firm and so obstinate, that it must be broken 
before it can be detached. It remains there feeding on the mucus of 
the stomach during the whole of the winter, and until the end of the 
ensuing spring; when, having attained a considerable size, d, and being 
destined to undergo a certain transformation, it disengages itself from 
the cuticular coat, is carried into the villous portion of the stomach 
with the food, passes out of it with the chyme, and is evacuated with 
the dung. 
The larva , or maggot, seeks shelter in the ground, and buries itself 
there ; it contracts in size, and becomes then a chrysalis, or grub, in 
which state it lies inactive for a few weeks, and then, bursting from 
its confinement, assumes the form of a fly. The female, becoming 
impregnated, quickly deposits her eggs on those parts of the horse 
which he is most accustomed to lick, and thus the species is perpetu- 
ated. 
There are several plain conclusions to be drawn from this history. 
The bots cannot, while they inhabit the stomach of the horse, give the 
animal any pain, for they have fastened on the cuticular and insensible 
coat. They cannot be injurious to the horse, for he enjoys the most 
perfect health when the cuticular part of his stomach is filled with 
them, and their presence is not even suspected until they appear at the 
anus. They cannot be removed by medicine, because they are not in 
that part of the stomach to which medicine is usually conveyed ; and 
if they were, their mouths are too deeply buried in the mucus for any 
medicine, that can be safely administered, to affect them ; and, last of 
all, in due course of time they detach themselves, and come away. 
Therefore the wise man will leave them to themselves, or content him- 
self with picking them off when they collect under the tail and annoy 
the animal. 
The smaller bot,/ and <7, is not so frequently found. 
Wind-Galls. — In the neighborhood of the fetlock there are occasion- 
ally found considerable enlargements, oftener on the hind leg than the 
fore one, which are denominated wind-galls. Between the tendons and 
other parts, and wherever the tendons are exposed to pressure or friction, 
and particularly about their extremities, little bags or sacs are placed, 
containing, and suffering to ooze slowly from them, a mucous fluid to 
lubricate (make slippery) the parts. From undue pressure, and that 
most frequently caused by violent action and straining of the tendons, 
or often from some predisposition about the horse, these little sacs are 
injured. They take on inflammation and sometimes become large and 
hardened. There are few horses perfectly free from them. When they 
first appear, and until the inflammation subsides, they may be accompa- 
nied by some degree of lameness; but otherwise, except when they at- 
tain a great size, they do not interfere with the action of the animal, or 
cause any considerable unsoundness. The farriers used to suppose that 
they contained wind — hence their name, wind-galls ; and hence the 
practice of opening them, by which dreadful inflammation was often 
