^JO CROTALAKIA BL KKEANA. 



Sivainsona galegifolia R.Br. (" darling pea '') " indigo.'' 

 In Australia this plant is well-known to be poisonous to stock. 



Most of the cases of poisoning by it are said to occur in the dry 

 season, when stock are especially attracted by green and succulent 



.foliage, and are more likely to gorge themselves upon a single 

 species which remains green, if found in fair abundance. 



Physiological action. — Prof. Martin has investigated the action 



.of Sivainsona galegifolia on sheep, and finds that its eftects are 

 similar to those produced by slow poisoning with alcohol and cer- 



lain toxic proteids, resulting in peripheral neuritis and degenera- 

 tion of the nerve endings, accompanied by a loss of muscular con- 

 trol. The action is a slow one, four to six weeks being required 



;to produce serious symptoms. If at once put on a proper diet 

 recovery takes place, but not if paralytic symptoms have super- 

 vened. Young lambs probably respond more rapidly to the poison ; 

 when the symptoms are fully established there is no remedy (5). 

 Experiments on frogs indicated that Swainsona possessed very 

 powerful sudorific properties, reducing them in a few hours to 

 mere skeletons (11). 



Bailey describes the effect on sheep eating the plant as follows : 

 They separate from the flock, wander about listlessly, and are 

 known to the shepherds as " pea eaters " or " indigo eaters." 

 When once a sheep takes to eating it, it seldom or never fattens, 

 and may be said to be lost to its owners. In 1873 a Mr. Charles 

 Thorn tested this plant on a lamb which had become an " indigo 



■ eater " ; it was placed in a small paddock, where it refused to eat 

 grass ; Mr. Thorn collected a quantity of the Indigo plant, w^hich 

 it ate greedily, following him all over the paddock and eating it 

 out of his hand. Horses which had been feeding on Swainsona 

 were exceptionally difficult to catch ; their eyes were staring out of 

 their heads, and they were prancing against trees and stumps. 

 The second day two out of nine died and five of the rest had to 

 be left behind. When driven they would suddenly stop, turn 

 round and round, and keep throwing up their heads as if they had 

 been hit under the jaw ; they would then fall, lie down for a while, 

 rise and repeat the performance (11). 



LOCO WEEDS. 



In California, Colorado and other Western States of America, 

 a neuritic disease, ending in hallucinations and death, is produced 

 by eating several species of the Leguminose genera Astragalus and 

 Oxytropis. In Texas, Sophora sccundiflora, also a Legume, is the 

 cause of " locoism." 



Lessertia annularis Benth. C^' t'nenta ^'). 



Prof. MacOwan pointed out that this Leguminose plant, when 



in full bearing of its crop of pods and ripening seeds, was a cause 



of true neuritic stvfziekte in the Cape Province. A lesser amount 



• of suspicion, he adds, rests upon several common species of Indigo- 



fera and Tcphrosia (6). 



