OX WARBLE FLY. 
115 
A mixture of sulphur 1 lb., soft soap 1 lb., and boiling water 
3 pints, applied when cold with a brush to the animal’s back, has also 
been found useful; as well as sulphur \ oz., prepared lard l£ oz., tar 
1 oz. But so far as I can judge, the mixture of train oil, sulphur, and 
spirits of tar, noted on page 8 of my leaflets, has been found to 
answer best of all. 
What is now needed to be done to stamp out this attack for all 
practical purposes is to get knowledge spread abroad of what Warbles 
really are , and what their effects are, so that, 
amongst other benefits, cattle buyers in country 
districts should not be imposed on by old-fashioned 
tales, long since disproved, about boils and 
humours, and action of the grasses, which can in 
a second be proved false by applying a finger and 
thumb to the Warble and squeezing out the great 
maggot. 
Every man, however ignorant, has sense to 
know, when it is put before him, that though he 
may have a boil on his neck or spine he has not a 
great maggot in it, and if this could be impressed 
all round the country it would make a deal of 
difference. 
I am not aware of anything that brings the knowledge of the 
mischief that is going forward home to all minds better than showing 
the inside of a badly-warbled hide. Outside, the hair, &c., prevent the 
mischief fully showing; but when the inside is seen with the great 
maggots wriggling in their cells, showing their shape through the thin 
film to which they have worn down the lowest tissue, and the putrid 
matter breaking out in places, this brings conviction home that all is 
not “ as well as could be wished.” 
The two accompanying figures (see p. 116) show the powerful 
basketwork-like coating of muscles with which the maggot is furnished 
after its last moult within its thick skin, and the external bands of 
prickles. By means of the first it can wriggle itself perpetually about 
in its cell, and thus with the help of the prickles—which it possesses 
more or less through life—it keeps up a perpetual irritation. 
It may be of some interest, as a specimen of how this attack is 
misunderstood through sheer want of information, to mention that I 
have a note before me of Warbles being rubbed with whale oil to bring 
them to a head, and then bimit off with hot tar. Where a man would 
go to this trouble and expense, and labour, to torment and injure the 
unlucky beast, he would have been thankful to know better. 
The great points of national loss are on loss of health, and 
i 2 
Maggot, nat. size 
about 1 in. long. 
