ILL EFFECTS OF SMUTTY CORN ON CATTLE. 85 



a decoction of the same induced loss of appetite, a tliin and sickly 

 aspect, and altogether evidence that the animals had been poisoned. 



MOLDY BREAD. 



Flour is attacked by a very noxious red or orange-colored mold, 

 {Penicilliiim roseum) and a less poisonous greenish-blue mold, {PenicilUum 

 glaucum). Bread made from flour which has been kept in a damp place, 

 or that which is the produce of wheat grown and harvested during 

 unfavorable weather, becomes moldy and may become very deleterious. 

 Accidents have happened where horses have been fed on such bread, 

 and I may mention that it is not uncommon at times and in some coun- 

 tries for horses to be fed partly on bread. Eating moldy bread has 

 been said to induce gastro-enteritis in horses, and Professor 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 corn stalks first denote ill health by constipa- 

 tion. It is true that a farmer may be only attracted by an animal lying 

 down, with an unthrifty-looking, stary coat, dry muzzle, and perhaps 

 trembling; or a steer may be noticed "tucked up," with hind limbs 

 drawn under it, head depressed, shivering, dullness of eyes, and anx- 

 ious 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 poison- 

 ing. 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 

 to fight and fought furiously. I have seen an animal in this conditoni 

 tied up in a stall, rush forward, fall on her knees, and then extending 

 herself on her side, suffer from a convulsive fit. Or in other cases, when 

 attempts are made to lead such an animal about, it runs forward, 

 I)lunges, strikes against any obstacle, roars, moans, grunts in breathing, 

 and ai)pears to suffer acutely if touched or disturbed. In other words, 

 with the imi)a(;tions Of the third stomach, which itj the essential lesion 

 of the disease, wliether induced by smutty stalks, old indigestible stalks 

 that have no smut, or other kind of food or poison, there are two dis- 

 tinct conditions induced. The one of stupor, listlessness, vertigo, 

 depression of spirits ; and these are indicated by animals standing sul- 

 lenly until they drop or are relieved. The se(5ond is a state of exquisite 

 sensitiveness, hypersesthesia 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 



