68 CONTAGIOUS DISEASES OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



The severe frost ou the 31st of May 1856, is supposed by some to have been the cause 

 of this disease in the grass by destroying the vitality of the seed before it arrived at 

 perfection ; while by others it is attributed to the extreme warm growing weather in 

 June causing an overflow of sap. 



Although we consider the whole subject involved in much obscurity and uncertainty, 

 and requiring further investigation, yet we are satisfied the best manner of treating 

 the disease is immediate resort to restoratives and a change of diet, whereby an in- 

 crease of animal heat and vitality is obtained, and at the same time making an appli- 

 cation of suitable remedies to the affected parts, by cutting off the toes until they 

 bleed, and blue vitriol moderately applied to the foot has in several instances- been 

 foiind beneficial. A free use of charcoal and salt in various ways is undoubtedly a 

 good preventive ; and a careful examination of the hay or grass on which stock is fed 

 is indispensable ; if ergot is found in hay it uuiy be removed by threshing or tramping. 

 Of t tie specific nature and properties ofthe ergot in hay, or whether they are identical 

 with that of rye, we are not well informed. The immediate effects of the latter in 

 large doses is well known, but it has no affinity to the oi'dinary known effects of 

 vegetable j»oisons. What effect would be produced by its gradual and continual use 

 we are not in possession of sufiScient information to warrant us in speaking positively; 

 but we do suppose, after a careful examination, that it operates on the blood of the 

 animal, and unless immediate remedies are applied it proves fatal. 



P. BARRON, M. D., 

 R. M. HART, Esq., 

 J. Y. PEARSON, 

 JONAS BOND, 



Committee. 



The followiDg resolution was unanimously adopted: 



Resolved (inasmuch as the evidence adduced is conclusive), that ergot in hay is 

 the cause of this disease. The association cannot decide that it is the real cause of 

 a poison being introduced into the system, owing to our inability to analyze this sub- 

 stance; therefore we desire to ask the editors of our agricultural papers for more in- 

 formation, and to obtain a chemical analysis of ergot. 



In the Chicaxjo Tribune, March 14, 1884, appeared a letter signed J. 

 Hosmer, containing the following paragraph, which, while it refers the 

 disease to a ditferent cause, evidently describes the same affection : 



In 1873-'74, in Chariton County, Missouri, the winter was very severe, the mercury 

 going to more than 20- below zero. The people on the open prairie, mostly Germans 

 who had recently moved there, seeing that the native Missourians provided no shel- 

 ter for their stock provided none themselves. In the spring from one to three in a 

 flock of eight to ten had the " black leg." It commenced to separate just where the 

 skin joins the hoof. The animal being in great pain, lapped the infected part, and 

 the poison was thus transferred to the mouth. It was nothing more or less than gan- 

 grene, as the leg rotted and became putrid. 



In the month of February, 1884, a letter written to the editor of the 

 Breeder's Gazette by Cushman Brothers, of North East, Pa., in regard 

 to a strange disease of dairy cattle there was referred to me. This let- 

 ter, written February 19, and a second one from the same gentlemen, 

 dated March 8, in reply to some inquiries of mine, contained the follow- 

 lowing informatiou : 



The dairy in question contained 18 cows, and the disease appeared 

 about January 1, 1884. The first indication was " cocked "ankles behind, 



