26 



BULLETIN 125, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



RESPIRATION. 



The rate of respiration had an extremely wide range of variation. 

 Quite uniformly in the acute stages of the poisoning, the rate was 

 very rapid, running in some cases as high as 250 per minute. After 

 this period the rate was very much reduced, falling to normal or below, 



/OO 



97 



>R M. 



FIG. 1. Curve of temperature of sheep No. 282. 



and the animal sometimes lay for hours breathing most of the tune 

 in a slow and labored fashion. This period of comparative quiet might 

 be interrupted, sometimes frequently, by times of rapid breathing, 

 accompanied by panting and followed quickly by a very slow rate. 

 Sometimes, in severe cases, there were tunes when the animal threw 



/OS 



/oo 



^J* 



\ 



i FIG. 2. Curve of temperature of sheep No. 291 



itself about violently, fighting for oxygen. This condition lasted for 

 perhaps two or three minutes and was succeeded by a period of quiet, 

 which was soon broken by another struggle. During these struggles 

 the mucous membranes of the. mouth were frequently cyanotic. 

 The struggles were spasmodic, and when authors state that poisoned 

 animals have spasms or convulsions, it is to be presumed that they 



