April 3, 1920.] Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. 269 



local view that the animals become affected by contact with the plant. The 

 excoriation, &c., is no doubt due to the attempts of the animal to obtain 

 relief from the intolerable itching which, as before remarked, may be so 

 great as to cause it to become tempoi-arily demented. 



A.11 affected animals after removal from an infested paddock and being 

 placed in a clean one soon recover general health, but the damage to the skin 

 and wool is not so readily remedied. The writer has had an opportunity of 

 personally inspecting a number of animals suffering from the result of eating 

 St. John's Wort, but as the cases are all very similar, varying mainly in degree, 

 it will suffice to note here two typical cases — one a sheep and the other a 

 cow. The sheep had been affected a considerable time ; its condition was 

 very poor, its fleece ragged, and the animal showed great mental depression- 

 On both sides of the loins were two areas, about 8 by 6 inches each, quite 

 •devoid of wool and covered with scabs. Practically the whole of the 

 flexor surfaces of the fore and hind limbs were bare of wool and covered 

 with scabs. The ears were in ribbons, greatly thickened, ulcerated and had 

 large scabs. One eye was blind, and the whole of the face, including the 

 nostrils, was swollen. The skin of the face was partly raw and partly scabbed 

 over. 



The cow was red in colour, patched with white. Its condition was very 

 poor, but the animal exhibited no pronounced depression. The disease had 

 lieen in existence some six weeks. The hair was removed from all the white 

 patches on the upper surface of the body, but on the under surface of the 

 abdomen the white areas appeared to be normal. Portions of scabs were 

 scattered over the excoriated surfaces, and the nose was swollen, excoriated 

 and scabbed. No coloured parts of the skin were affected; the udder was 

 •considerably reddened, but showed no raw parts at the time of examination. 

 The flow of milk was entirely suppressed. 



Feeding Experiments with St. John's Wort. 



Owing to the scepticism expressed by a number of stockowners and others 

 as to the injurious effects produced by S-t. John's Wort as the result of 

 feeding upon it, the writer decided to conduct feeding experiments at the 

 University Veterinary School, the Chief Inspector of Stock, Mr. S. T. D. 

 :Symons, kindly arranging to supply fresh plants weekly. The first 

 ■experiments were begun in April, 1919. Two sheep were fed with an 

 unlimited amount of the plant, which at that period of the year was very old, 

 fibrous and dry. The animals were very reluctant to eat any of it, even 

 ^fter it was chopped up and mixed with other fodder. 



Twenty-three days after commencement of feeding, one sheep, a Lincoln 

 •crossbred, was observed biting at its loins and rubbing its face and sides 

 vigorously against the posts of the pen. During the next few days the 

 animal's fleece appeared ruffled in various places and the animal was seen 

 •several times with tufts of wool in its mouth which it had torn out in biting. 

 Locks of wool were matted together by an exudate, but no changes were 

 seen in the skin itself. On the twenty-eighth day the second sheep, a 



