Botts, in zoology, a species of short worms produced and nourished in the intestines of a horse.

As the flies, from whose the botts are produced, do not frequent the neighbourhood of large towns, horses are not liable to this be kept in the sta-ble during summer and autumn.

In summer the females of these flies enter the anus of the horse, where they deposit their eggs, which are soon hatched by the heat, and the worms penetrate into the Intestines, sometimes as far as the stomach.

Botts are very large maggots, composed of circular rings with prickly feet, by which they adhere to the part where they breed, and derive their nourishment. When they reach the stomach, they fasten themselves in its muscular coat, and suck the blood like leeches, each worm ulcerating the part where it fixes, till it resembles a honey-comb. These worms not unfrequendy the cause of con vulsions.

Botts that are generated in the stomach of the horse are extremely dangerous, and seldom dis ble till they have acquired strength, when they throw him great agonies.

The symptoms of the other kinds, are more troublesome than dangerous, are the following : The horse becomes lean, and looks jaded ; his hair stands out roughly ?

he often strikes his hind feet against his belly ; he is sometimes graped, but generally lies down quietly on his belly for a short time, and then up and eats his food. But the surest sign is, when he voids the botts in his dung.

For the cure of botts in the stomach, calomel should first be given in large quantities and repeated at intervals;AEthiops mineral may afterwards.

The botts, that many horses troubled with in the beginning summer, are always seen on straight gut, and are often thrown out with the dung and a yellowish matter. 1 hey are not dangerous in in that part, though they render the horse restless. The when they affect, the animal is commonly in the months of _May and June, alter which they are rarely seen, as they do not con-tinue with the horse above a fortnight or three Weeks. Botts in the straight gut may be cured by ing the horse a spoonful of savin, cut small, once or twice a day, in oats or bran moistened, to which may be added three or four cloves of garlic. The following all purge should also be given at intervals : Fine socotrine. aloes, ten drams; in freshjalap, one dram ; ari-stoluchia, or birthwert and myrth powdered, of each two drams ; oil of savin and amber, of each one dram ; syrup of buckthorn, enough to form the whole into a ball.