Feb., 1906.] The Cause of Trembles in Cattle. 465 



ancestors settled on the peninsula north of Sandusky Bay in 

 1812. For many years trembles occurred among the stock. 

 He believes that from their own observation they concluded it 

 was caused by their eating snake-root which they would do only 

 in a dry season when the pasture was poor. 



About 1872 Mr. David Barber in Margaretta Township, when 

 he was hauling wood with a sleigh, left the gate open into the 

 woods. Sheep got in and, though they were there hardly more 

 than two hours, a number had trembles and some died. The 

 snake-root was the principal plant in these woods. Mr. Barber 

 did not notice that they ate it but supposed at the time that they 

 were poisoned by something they found by pawing through the 

 snow. These woods were notorious for the great number of 

 horses, cattle and sheep which contracted the trembles in them. 

 Mr. Barber told me that he had noticed this weed was abundant 

 wherever trembles prevailed. I had already found this true of 

 the woods I had examined. 



In 1904 Louis Quinn had twenty-seven steers pastured in a 

 large woods in Townsend. All had the trembles and nine died. 

 The woods were known to be dangerous and so Mr. Quinn has 

 been accustomed to leave stock there no later than June 1st. 

 This time he left them about a week longer and had more of 

 them than usual so that they were harder pressed for food. In 

 these woods I found white snake-root more abundant than anv 

 other dicotyl. I saw thousands of them in a walk of a few min- 

 utes while plants fit to eat were scarce. Nearly all the woods 

 in that part of the township are considered unsafe and are 

 pastured only early in the season if at all. In woods near Mr. 

 Quinn's six lambs died of trembles this year. White snake-root 

 was found abundant in all the woods examined in that region 

 with one notable exception. In the woods of Orlando Ransom 

 I could not find a single specimen, though a boy who was assist- 

 ing me found one. June grass was growing in every part. Mr. 

 Ransom told me the woods had been pastured for the past fifty 

 years and no trembles had occurred. I also learned from sev- 

 eral sources that trembles were unknown west of Pickerel Creek 

 which is three miles west of Quinn's woods. I examined woods 

 just east of this creek, but found no snake-root and learned that 

 the}^ were pastured with impunity. West of the creek I could 

 find no snake-root in the first two woods examined, in the third 

 after walking nearly a quarter of a mile I found four or five 

 plants, in the fourth none, and in the fifth many in one place and 

 a few others scattered about. 



EARLY EXPERIMENTS IN FEEDING THE WEED. 



About 1843 John Palmer Deyo, "a scientific investigator and 

 prominent physician," living near Bellevue fed white snake-root 



