Art. XVIII. — iVotes on a Poisonous Species of Homeria 

 (H. collina, Vent. — var. miniata), found at Faseoe 

 Vale, causing deaih in cattle and other animals 

 feediny upon it. 



By D. McAlptnk and P. W. Farmer, M.B., Ch. B. 



[Eead November 4, 1892.] 



Introductory. 



The sudden death of a nnmber of cattle at Pascoe Vale, 

 a suburb of Melboui-ne, about the middle of Septeinbei-, 

 attracted a good deal of attention, and from various 

 accompanying circumstances, there were grounds for believing 

 that the herbage had .something to do with it. Specimens 

 of the supposed poisonous weed were sent to Baron von 

 Mueller, Government Botanist, and he determined it to be 

 a species of Homeria, a native of South Africa. He 

 remarked that "in their native country occasionally pasture 

 animals have suffered from the.se kinds of plants, but no 

 poison cases have hitherto come undei- my own notice." 



Veterinary surgeons also took the matter up, and they 

 decided the deaths to be due to anthrax, the sudden illness 

 of the animals and the subsequent deaths of many of them 

 giving colour to this supposition ; but it does not appear 

 that the anthrax bacillus {Bucillu-s anthracis, Cohn) was 

 found in the spleen of the dead animals, which is always 

 considerably swollen and full of enormous quantities of these 

 bacilli, when death is due to that cause. But skilled 

 veterinary surgeons may be wrong, and the plain, common 

 sense farmer may be right in some instances, even where 

 the death of cattle is concerned, and here was evidently 

 a case where further investigation was desirable. Since the 

 Homeria plant, which was known to be eaten .by the cows 

 which died, was growing luxuriantly in patches extending 



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