124 
OX WARBLE FLY. 
sometimes pointed out cases where the Warbles were sufficient to cause 
death, but the farmers will not believe it, and say it was inflammation 
of the kidneys.” 
It is not for me to offer an opinion on veterinary points, but it 
appears to me that such coincidence of a deranged state of system 
with the existence of the great amount of inflammation, and also of 
putrid matter, in the hide, is a matter asking for investigation. 
I have by me a hide of a yearling that was known to die clearly 
from mortification caused by Warbles ; also last summer, through the 
courtesy of Prof. Wortley Axe, of the Royal Veterinary College, 
Camden Town, who at my request examined for me the heart of a runt 
which was warbled (not specially largely, but just along the course of 
the spine), it was found that blood-poisoning was certainly coincident 
with the sudden death of the animal; and I have many other notes 
showing the illness, even up to death, in bad cases of warbles. 
Loss on the hides is a very serious matter, but it should be 
remembered that this is only a part of the loss caused by Warble 
attack: in the words of Mr. R. Stratton, of the Duffryn, Newport, 
Monmouthshire, “ it is as pennies to sovereigns ” compared to the loss 
on the animals. 
The Hide returns show the effect of one season’s attack, but the 
animal has suffered, according to its age, repeatedly, as in an instance 
lately sent me by Messrs. Thomas & Sons, of Llandilo, who reported 
that on one old cow-hide “ there were 500 scabs,” these showing the 
injuries of Warble in former seasons. 
No one who gives a little thought to the subject can fail to see that 
the attack is a very bad thing to allow, in whatever way it is looked 
at. It is bad for the animal that it should be in pain, both for itself 
and because this prevents its thriving ; and it is very bad for the owner 
that the running sores in the hide, which serve to support maggots an 
inch long, which may be counted often by scores and sometimes by 
hundreds, should draw away a percentage of the returns of the food 
meant to support the animal on whose juices they feed ; and no one 
connected with cattle will doubt that for the herds to tear about the 
fields full drive in the summer heat, is very bad indeed for profit to 
the owner, whether in meat, milk, or coming produce. 
The point we need to undermine, to get proper attention paid, is 
mainly Ignorance, and especially we need to show that the attack is 
not “ boils ” ! but a swelling as big as a bad boil, with the addition of 
a great maggot screwing itself about by its rings inside; and it might 
fairly be put to any man who upholds the benefit of the attack, how 
he would feel if he had even only a score of large boils along his 
back, even without a maggot (a worm as it is sometimes called—a very 
type of utter misery) feeding for months on his living frame. 
