vi] Liliaceas 81 
alkaloid from the seeds, Farr and Wright from 0*46 to 0*95 per cent., 
and Carr and Reynolds 0'12 to 0'57 per cent. ; the U.S. Pharmacopoeia, 
1905, required a Colchicine content of 0'45 per cent, in the seeds, and 
0*35 per cent, in the corms (Allen). 
Symptoms, After small, but not fatal doses there is loss of appetite, 
suppression of rumination, salivation, light colic, diarrhoea and voiding 
of small quantities of urine. Blood has been observed in the milk of 
affected cows. Larger and fatal quantities cause total loss of appetite 
and sensation, stupefaction, loss of consciousness, dilatation of pupils, 
unsteady gait, and even paralysis of limbs, sweating, severe colic, and 
bloody diarrhoea, strangury and bloody urination; rapid, small, and 
finally imperceptible pulse, laboured breathing; and death in from 
one to three days. Where recovery takes place it is very slow (12 to 
14 days according to Cornevin). 
Cornevin draws attention to the fact that, as the symptoms do not 
occur until several hours after ingestion, by which time the poison must 
be partly distributed, the poison is very dangerous and difficult to combat, 
attempts at vomiting or evacuation, whether spontaneous or caused 
therapeutically, having little chance of ridding the organism of the 
poison. Cornevin's account of the symptoms shows that at first there 
is abundant salivation, with constriction of the throat, and dysphagia ; 
then nausea with vomiting; colic; abundant, repeated and diarrhosic 
evacuations, which at the end become dysenteric with painful tenesmus ; 
abundant urination; short, accelerated and difficult respiration, with 
inco-ordination in the thoracic and abdominal movements. The cir- 
culatory functions are modified only in fatal cases, when the pulse is 
small and intermittent towards the end. There is finally a notable drop 
in temperature, shown by the coldness of the skin. Death occurs 
in from 16 hours to 6 days after ingestion. During the last few 
hours the animals are stretched at full length and are incapable of 
getting up. There may be prolapsus of the rectum; the eye is 
deeply sunk; sensibility is deadened and death is due to stoppage of 
respiration. 
In the horse, there are spasmodic movements of the hind-quarters 
and excessive excitement of the urinary genital organs. In cattle there 
is cessation of rumination, grinding of teeth, dryness of muzzle, ptyalism, 
groaning, painful colic, dysentery, deeply sunken and watery eyes, 
anus wide open, and evacuation of very foetid, blackish, glareous matter 
round the excrement. In cows there may be suppression of milk, and 
abortion. In the pig there is abundant salivation and voniiting, and 
L. 6 
