J\( rail/sis ill Ilorsen dud Coa's. 215 



near chute: llesult : — On tlic thirteenth day al'tcr first feed, some 

 inappetance was <il)serve(l, but not marked. Gradually symptoms of 

 l»iu(a]. {iliat yii^real, ;uid to some exti^nt lin<rual paralysis became 

 maiiit'ested ; she was killed when almost in exfre/nis after having 

 given Itirth to a healthy calf, and after having eaten and divmk 

 }iracrica]|y iiotliing foi' the previous five days, thirteen days after 

 the hrst symptoms of illness appeared, and twenty-six days after 

 the feeding experiment commenced. In all 88 lbs. of the contami- 

 nated or poisonous fodder was eaten by this animal. 



It becomes ol)vious from a consideration of the results of these 

 feeding ex'i)eriments that the fodder, consisting apparently of 

 ordinai'v chaffed oaten hay. with the addition of a slight percentage 

 of oats, and of bran, contained some element which was the cause 

 of the fatal results. What this element was, whether some native or 

 other weed, or a fungus (or other) disease of some of the constituent 

 plants, there was no indication, and examination of the cvit fodder 

 was unsatisfa(_to)y on these points. That the horse paralysis in 

 South Australia, where it has l)een 'most observed, is frequently 

 found associated with feeding on musty fodder, would seem to indi- 

 cate the latter hypothesis; but the fact that this is not invariably 

 the case is against tlie idea of ordinary moulds being a cause. 

 Again, it must be remembered that if the cause be of a fungoid 

 nature, it is one that does not deleteriously affect the fodder to such 

 an extent as to render it unpalatable or even suspicious to the horse 

 or cow. not to mention ourselves, by any standard we can at present 

 adojit. Further, wliile I have not heard of any cases of horse 

 paralysis where the animals were not, at least partially, fed on 

 <liy fodder such as hay, chaff, etc., cattle paralysis frequently occurs 

 where animals are feeding solely on natural pasturage. The most 

 reasonable hypothesis under the circumstances, is, therefore, that 

 there is some plant which horses are able to avoid while it is growing 

 naturally, but which even then many cattle cannot or do not avoid ; 

 a plant also that even the horse does not detect when mixed Avith 

 other ripe or dried plants, especially if chaffed and mixed. 



Htit again, whether fungoid or herbal in origin, it cannot be 

 gainsaid that the essential cause of the paralysis is some powerful 

 poison of certain cells in the ci'nti'al nervous system. The chemical 

 nature of that |)oison cannot as yet be even a.ssumed. for we know 

 of no poison alkaloidal oi' glucosidal in nature, which woiild have 

 such a latent period l)efore symptoms were ])roduce<l. In fact, suih 

 poisons Avoidd be eliminated almost entirely from the system within 

 24 to 48 houjs, provided no physiological effects were produced. In 



