ILL EFFECTS OF SMUT. 79 



Accidents have happened where horses have been fed on such bread, and I may mention 

 that it is not uncommon in some countries for horses to be fed at times partly on 

 bread. Eating mouldy bread has been said to induce gastro-enteritis in horses, and Pro 

 fessor Fuchs saw two cases of stomach staggers induced by it, which were relieved by 

 purgatives. 



SYMPTOMS OF THE ILL EFFECTS OF SMUTTY CORN. 



Cattle fed on smutty cornstalks first denote ill-health by constipation. It is true 

 that a farmer may be attracted only by an animal lying down, with an unthrifty-looking, 

 staring coat, and dry muzzle, and perhaps trembling ; or a steer may be noticed &quot;tucked up,&quot; 

 with hind limbs drawn under, head depressed, shivering, dullness of eyes, and anxious 

 expression of countenance. In a third variety the animal seems excited, breathes quickly, 

 and is apparently somewhat delirious indeed, in the conditions described by Mr. Gumming, 

 of Ellen, Aberdeenshire, as resulting from impactions of the third stomach, as in cases of 

 lead poisoning, nothing is more strange than this delirium, associated as it is sometimes 

 with blindness. A farmer writing me from the West says that when he tried to put a 

 rope around the head of a sick cow, which he found standing with all the symptoms of 

 sickness presented by other animals of the herd which had been with her in the corn field, 

 she turned and fought furiously. I have seen an animal in this condition, tied up 

 in a stall, rush forward, fall on her knees, and then, extending herself on her side, suffer 

 from a convulsive fit. In other cases, when attempts are made to lead such animals 

 about, they run forward, plunge, strike against any obstacle, roar, moan, grunt in 

 breathing, and appear to suffer acutely if touched or disturbed. In other words, with 

 the impactions of the third stomach, which is the essential lesion of the disease, whether 

 induced by smutty stalks, old indigestible stalks that have no smut, or other kind of food 

 or poison, there are two distinct conditions induced the one of stupor, listlessness, 

 vertigo, and depression of spirits, indicated by the animals standing sullenly until they 

 drop or are relieved; the second is a state of exquisite sensitiveness, a hypercesthesia of 

 the skin and system generally. The animals are not only excited, but in a state of 

 actual suffering, and die very speedily in a state of coma or in convulsions. The disease 

 does not last long. I have seen an animal linger on four or five days, but usually the 

 whole course of the malady is run in twenty-four to forty-eight hours. 



An animal first seems to show costiveness, with a dry mucus over the scanty excre 

 ment ; and although apparently undisturbed, and even feeding, may be dead in twelve to 

 twenty-four hours. 



The diagnosis of the disease at an early period of its manifestations is therefore 

 important, and it rests on the knowledge of the manner in which animals have been 

 treated and fed, (as the simultaneous attack of several animals shows,) and especially on 

 the observations of a fact that I have usually noticed, that the animals which have eaten 

 most ravenously have been the first and most severely affected. Old cattle may some 

 times avoid the smutty food, and young animals eat heartily; the latter will be found the 

 only ones to die. 



POST-MORTEM APPEARANCES. 



The state of torpor of the alimentary canal of animals affected with this disease is 

 indicated on opening the belly and exposing the stomach to view. In the first stomach, 



