lo Feb., 1909.] Diseases of Farm Animals. loi 



Dairy cattle and young stock habitually grazed on land where Homeria 

 grows seldom show any ill effects from eating it ; but when a travelling 

 mob of strange cattle comes along the eating of it is frequently followed 

 by a number of deaths. 



The only practical method of eradication which has given promise of 

 success is continued ploughing and cultivation. Where this has been done 

 year by year on badly infested lands few plants will remain, but if any 

 remain it is only a matter of time when the paddock will be again overrun, 

 so that it would seem safer that infested land should be given over wholly 

 to cultivation for a number of years. 



Symptoms. — The symptoms successively noticed usually are:- — rest- 

 lessness, cerebral excitement, bowel and bladder disturbance indicated by 

 fiequent passage of urine and faeces, disinclination to move followed by 

 inability and partial loss of power in the hind extremities. Motor 

 paralysis of the limbs succeeds, and the animal cannot rise. The respira- 

 tion and temperature are below normal ; the pulse is accelerated, and there 

 is difficulty in swallowing. The paralysis becomes complete, uncon- 

 sciousness supervenes in fatal cases and death occurs in from one to four 

 days. 



On post-mortem examination the appearances are indecisive. The 

 mucous lining of the fourth stomach (abomasum) and the first portion of 

 the small intestine is usually congested. Identifiable portions of the stalk 

 and leaves of the plant may be found in the paunch. 



Experiments conducted by the Victorian Department of Agriculture in 

 1892 would seem to show that the mortality depends upon the quantity 

 of plant eaten and that death only results when' a considerable quantity 

 is eaten at a time. When small quantities are partaken of the symptoms 

 are less severe and pass off gradually. The animal after one or two 

 feeds appears to acquire a dislike to the food and refuses to touch it. 

 In this connexion it has been frequently noted that animals indigenous 

 to a Cape Tulip locality never suffer any ill effects. Whether this is 

 due to the gradual acquirement of a tolerance to the poisonous action of 

 the plant or whether such cattle instinctively avoid it has not been deter- 

 mined, but it appears to be a general experience that only cattle strange 

 to the district become affected. In two authenticated outbreaks amongst 

 cattle the mortality was respectively 9 out of 18 and -zo out of 95. 

 An extract of the leaves injected subcutanecusly caused death in 8 pigs 

 in 3 hours preceded by symptoms similar to those showed in cows. In 

 South Africa natives (Hottentots) as well as cattle are said to have been 

 poisoned by eating this plant. During the great Boer war 1900-2 the 

 British cavalry horses were on two occasions reported to have suffered 

 severelv from Homeria poisoning at Carolina. South Africa. The pro- 

 minent svmptoms presented \\ere those of flatulent colic with a dry, sour, 

 musty smell about the mouth. The hypodermic injection of half grain 

 doses of physostigmine was successful in effecting recovery in many cases. 

 Calcium chloride in half ounce doses was also found beneficial. 



Zamia Poisoning. 



The cause of the disease of cattle previously known as "Rickets" 

 in Queensland and Western Australia, although by no means a settled 

 question, is now generally considered to be the eating of the leaves of the 

 ■Nlacrozamia " palm " {Zamia Frazerii or Zamia Dyerii) from the bulbous' 

 underground stem of which the arrowroot of commerce is got. It is now 

 more correctly described as Zamia paralysis. The symptoms appear to 



