308 TEA^'SACTIO^'S and PEOCEEDINGS of the [Sess. lix. 



cases of such attack tracheotomy gives an almost imme- 

 diate and complete recovery, whereas no medicines have 

 any effect. The Messrs. Leather reported another case 

 from Eouen, where out of 54 horses belongincj to an 

 omnibus company, 29 were seized with illness, 9 dying, 

 and tracheotomy being performed on the rest. This com- 

 pany had 300 horses, but only one stable showed attack, 

 the one in which Z. sativus was used. A closing reference 

 in this connection may be made to the now famous 

 Bristol Tramways Company case, where 123 horses out 

 of a stud of 800 fell ill, owing to feeding on Z. sativus 

 seeds. As indicating the symptoms of attack, I quote 

 ]\Ir. Challenger, the manager of the Company : — " The 

 horses suffered from what was styled, for want of 

 a better name, ' an epidemic of falling.' They 

 would fall suddenly without any accountable reason. 

 Cab and carriage shafts were broken daily, as also were 

 the car-poles." And again, " A horse being exercised was 

 taken suddenly ill ; it roared, its flanks heaved, its mouth 

 was kept wide open, the nostrils were distended, and the 

 tongue hung out and became livid; it stared and staggered, 

 and threatened every moment to fall down strangulated or 

 suffocated, and during this paroxysm, which lasted several 

 minutes, the perspiration ran freely off' every part of the 

 horse." Severe exercise, or even ordinary exercise, is not 

 necessarily the precursor of attack. ]\Iere excitement is 

 sufficient to induce a paroxysm. Principal M'CoU, who 

 has had a ver}' large experience in cases of Z. sativus 

 poisoning, told me of a case at Bristol where he was 

 called in, where a horse accustomed to be fed first was 

 passed over, and his neighbours fed before him. The 

 horse became very excited, and in a moment or two fell 

 down, not recovering till twenty minutes later, when 

 tracheotomy had been performed. 



Climatic conditions. — Just as we saw illustrated in 

 the case of men being attacked, so also in horses, cold 

 weather was the time when the illness asserted itself. In 

 the Messrs. Leather's case the attack was in damp cold 

 weather and biting east winds. In Eouen, the month of 

 January. In cases dealt with by Professor M'Coll, the 

 early winter ; and in Bristol, January, February, and March, 



