654 MANUAL OF POISONOUS PLANTS 



brought up Sunday evening they appeared to be all right until they came into the barn yard, 

 when a cow fell down and seemed to have a spasm. It only lasted a few minutes when she 

 got up walked about 100 feet and fell again, got up and walked about thirty rods, fell again 

 and died in about thirty minutes. The yearling was all right until turned into the lot. In 

 about 20 minutes she was taken in the same way except a little more severely, rose 2 or 3 times 

 and died in about 15 minutes. I was satisfied that they were poisoned, but the cause worried me 

 for a while then I remembered the tubers I saw in the slough, I went next morning before 

 turning the cattle out and found that the cow and yearling had eaten some of the roots. I 

 gathered up nearly one-half bushel of the tubers, turned out the cattle and have had no trouble 

 since. On opening the cows, I found considerable of the tubers in the stomach, and the in- 

 side of the stomach was very black. 



The plant above ground likewise affects horses and evidently the poison 

 may reside in the leaves for considerable length of time even after they are 

 dried. The following experience of a correspondent in Ruthven, Iowa, calls at- 

 tention to the danger of using hay that contains cowbane: 



I mail herewith a small paper box which contains some weed, of which I sent you a speci- 

 men last summer. This species of hemlock as you call it, I picked out of a manger of a stallion, 

 which took suddenly sick this morning. Sickness lasted but a short spell. Do not know 

 whether this had anything to do with this sickness but am terribly prejudiced against it. 

 Another instance a few days ago of a colt taking violently sick all at once, apparently no cause, 

 there being considerable of this weed in the hay, and I had two cows lose their calves a short 

 time ago; the cows had access to this kind of hay. This quite frequently occurs hereabouts. 

 On a neighboring farm where this weed abounds, they lost nearly all their calves two years 

 ago. Apparently no cause, but of course there is a cause somewhere. I am satisfied some 

 stock will eat the leaves of this weed. 



Dr. Erwin F. Smith, in referring to the poisonous nature of this weed, 

 speaks of a case as follows : 



During the warm days which melted the snow and brought back the birds and gave indi- 

 cation of spring time, some children of a neighborhood on the outskirts of the city gave vent 

 to their feelings by digging and eating some artichokes which grew upon some low ground 

 borderng a brook. Two of these boys were taken violently ill ,and one of them eight years 

 old, died, within an hour after he had eaten the root. 



Dr. Smith states that upon an examination of the stomach and the root 

 from which he ate, it was proven beyond a doubt that Cicuta metadata was the 

 cause of death. 



Professor A. A. Crozier calls attention to the poisonous nature of cowbane 

 in this state and refers to a case occurring in northern Iowa as follows : 



Hon. Eugene Secor, of Forest City, this state, a member of the Board of Trustees of the 

 Iowa Agricultural College, brought me today a fleshy root of a plant of the Water-hemlock, 

 (Cicuta maculata, L.). The circumstances which brought it to his notice were as follows: 

 A neighbor of his by the name of Mr. Oleson, a farmer of about fifty years of age, while 

 dragging some potato ground upon bottom land about two weeks ago discovered one of the 

 fleshy roots of this plant, and supposing it to be an artichoke, ate it and gave a portion of it 

 to his two sons. He soon began to feel queer or "funny" as he expressed it, and went to the 

 house where he was taken with a spasm, followed by two or three others, when he became 

 unconscious and within half an hour, before a physician could be summoned from the village, 

 two miles distant, he was dead. The children had probably eaten less of the root and being 

 given an emetic, recovered. The plant is very common in the state and the roots are so pleas- 

 ant to the taste as to make it particularly dangerous. I may add that I ate a piece of the root 

 the size of a filbert with little or no unpleasant effect." 



One season the writer had a record of five cases of poisoning in this state. 

 From a press bulletin issued by the writer the following facts were given to 

 the public : 



Ira, aged ten, and Ross, aged eight years, children of T. Y. Johnson, died last night from 

 eating the roots of a poisonous water plant that grows in front of their house on the Keg 

 Creek flat east of the Ridgeway lumber yard. A third child, John, the seven year old son of 

 Mrs. Amanda Kingery, also ate the root but it seems was not made so sick as the others. 



Shortly before six o'clock the children came into the house showing Mrs. Johnson what 

 they had been eating. Not knowing what it was she had them spit it out and throw away 



