84 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Several epizootic attacks have been attributed to rust or mildew in 

 plants. Froiinuent looked upon it as causing great loss among sheep in 

 Franconia, during the years 16G3, '04, and '05. Rammazinni, professor 

 of medicine, at Padua, speaks of a contagious malady affecting men, 

 cattle, and even the silk worm, which broke out in 1090. The four or 

 five preceding years had been very hot, and during 1089 and 1090, much 

 rain having tallen, the country was inundated, the grasses, fruits, and 

 leguminous plants became affected with rust. Plagues which raged 

 among animals in Ilesse in 1093, in Hungary in 1712, and in Saxony in 

 1740, occurred with, and as a result of, mildew affecting vegetables- 

 Gerlach asserts that this will produce abortion and inflammation of the 

 womb in ewes. Numan, Masseband, and Niemann have also written on 

 the noxious properties of plants affected with rust. 



RUSTY STRAW. 



In 1804 Gohier, afterwards director of the Lyons veterinary college, 

 but then veterinary surgeon to the 20th light dragoons, published an 

 interesting monograph entitled "Des effects des pailles rouilles." The 

 depot of Gohier's regiment arrived at Arras on the 7th of June, with 

 about two hundred horses. For a month they continued healthy, being 

 supplied with good forage ; some of the straAV, however, was rusty. The 

 whole regiment arrived and the straw supplied was worse ; several horses 

 fell ill, being mainly attacked by violent colic. In three days fourteen 

 were affected with the disease; but with the exception of two old horses 

 that were ill for three days, the disease was only of a few hoiu*s dura- 

 tion. The horses that partook most freely of the rusty straw were most 

 seriously affected. In seven days thirty had suffered, and MM. Gohier 

 and Masigny drew up a report condemning the forage. Their opinion 

 was rejected by veterinary surgeons and others called upon to inquire 

 into the matter, aiid the whole evil was attributed to some water of 

 which, however, the horses had always drunk while enjoying perfect 

 health. After considerable annoyance and litigation it was recog- 

 nized that the rusty straw and even bad hay had given rise to much 

 disease and death among the horses of the regiment. During eight 

 ihonths, out of seven hundred horses, there were constantly from forty- 

 five to fifty in the infirmary, and in the month of November as many as 

 sixty-two. The deaths were by those diseases which always prevail 

 when animals are badly nourished, namely: stomach staggers, colic, 

 marasmus, glanders, farcy, skin diseases, catarrhal affections, and oede- 

 matous swellings. Those horses subject to anlema were very subject 

 to gangrene, and if setons were applied, or a farcy-bud cauterized by fire, 

 mortification of the wounded parts supervened, and the animals died in a 

 few hours. Gohiei- says that not only the rusty straw but likewise the 

 bad hay was tlu^ cause of such serious loss among the lunses of his regi- 

 ment. Gohier instituted several experiments to prove that the diseased 

 straw was injurious, and not only was he successful with the straw, but 



