Dec. 1894.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. 307 



him, and quoted largely in a very interesting account 

 by Mr. Challenger, of the British Tramway Company, in 

 the August numbers of ' Exchange and Mart,' I take the 

 following : — ' One after another about fifty men, more or 

 less lame, were questioned. "Without exception they all 

 stated that they had become paralytic during the rains. 

 Men who had gone to bed quite well had awoke in the 

 morning feelinsf their legs stiff and their loins weak, and 

 from that day they had never recovered the use of their 

 limbs. At first the lameness w^as trifling, and amounted 

 only to unsteadiness of gait and slight stiffness, chiefly of 

 the knees. After a time the muscles of the thighs 

 commenced to ache and feel weak, and also the loins. 

 Many of the men appeared to be strong looking, and 

 their legs did not seem to be much wasted, if at all so. 

 Those affected stated that the complaint did not lead 

 to other diseases, nor tend to shorten life, unless, indirectly, 

 by preventing the individual working and thus procuring 

 proper means of support.' " 



Not only in India have we records of attack, but in the 

 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries edicts were published 

 in Germany and France respectively, forbidding the use 

 of the pulse as food. There seems to be a strong opinion 

 that the pulse may be used as food, provided a certain 

 proportion be not exceeded. Dr. Irving states one-twelfth 

 as able to be mixed in safety with flour and rice, and some 

 put it as high as one-fourth. But I w'ill return to this in 

 dealing with its effects on horses. 



How IT AFFECTS HoRSES. — A typical instance was the 

 case reported by the Messrs. Leather, of Liverpool, in 

 1884, w^here in a stud of 74 cart horses 35 became ill 

 as a result of the Indian mutters being mixed with their 

 food to the quantity of 3 or 4 lbs. a day. Of the 35, 

 19 died, 2 were killed as useless, and 14 recovered. 

 The symptoms, as described by the ^Messrs. Leather, 

 were these : — Sometimes the horses said to be affected 

 seemed, when at rest, in perfect health, but on being 

 exercised, particularly if the weather was cold, they 

 were seized with dyspnoea and roaring, some dying from 

 asphyxia, others getting relief when tracheotomy had been 

 performed. There is a great body of evidence that in 



