62 STOCK-POISONING PLANTS OF MONTANA. 



ten or twelve hours became unable to walk, stand, or even raise their 

 heads, remaining in this condition of complete muscular paralysis for 

 a period of from twenty-four to fortj-eight hours. During this time 

 the sheep, as just indicated, lay flat upon the side and did not move 

 any voluntary muscle. The breathing was in these cases so shallow" 

 that it was scarcel}^ perceptible and the sheep appeared to be dead. A 

 small percentage of the sheep recovered after being in this condition 

 for a few hours, but ver}^ few ever got upon their feet after being 

 paralyzed for twenty-four hours. Careful post-mortem examinations 

 were made on about 40 sheep which had died from eating death 

 camas. The lungs were in all instances much congested and heav}" 

 with blood, being in a so-called hepatized condition. There were no 

 lesions in the membranes of the brain, and for the most part no con- 

 gestion of them. In a few instances of cases of long duration there 

 was a slight congestion of the cerebral membranes. In cases of adult 

 sheep the efiect upon the digestive organs was not marked. There 

 was usually to be observed an increased salivation and a regurgitation 

 through the mouth and nostrils. These last symptoms were present 

 in nearly all cases from the first to the last stages. In lambs the 

 symptoms which have been described for adult sheep were present, 

 with the addition of pronounced digestive disturbances. The symp- 

 toms appeared in the lamb soon after their manifestation in the mother, 

 and the poisoning usually ran a more rapid course in the former than 

 in the latter. The digestive disturbances in the lambs were frequently 

 of an acute nature, usually assuming the form of painful and violent 

 enteritis and dysentery, from which the lambs died in the course of 

 a few hours. In cases where the ewes ate only a small quantit}' of 

 death camas and were only slightly affected by it, their lambs exhibited 

 much milder symptoms. The lambs thus affected could be readily 

 recognized by their stiffness of gait and their inabilit}^ to keep up 

 with the herd. 



The symptoms which were produced experimentally by feeding the 

 death camas to sheep, were identical with those which have been men- 

 tioned as characterizing natural poisoning by this plant. Such experi- 

 ments, however, were confined to dry sheep, so that no opportunity 

 was had of observing the symptoms of experimental poisoning in 

 lambs. 



As happens in connection with a number of poisonous plants, the 

 majority of sheep which were poisoned by death camas were yearlings 

 and two-year-olds. Perhaps sheep form more fixed and settled habits 

 of feeding as they grow older, or it is barely possible that they learn 

 by experience to avoid injurious plants. There was no indication that 

 ewes with lambs at their sides were any more apt to eat death camas 

 than were dry sheep. 



In conversation with stockmen attention was frequently called to the 



