494 sroEADic diseases. 



observed in lupinosis are seen in this country, and the disease 

 prevails as an epizootic in certain parts of North America, par- 

 ticularly in two counties of Nova Scotia and Antigonish, where 

 it is called " The Pictou Disease ; " and M'Eachran of Montreal, 

 who investigated it in 1880, came to the conclusion that it was 

 not due to the ragwort, the plant supposed to be the cause by the 

 inhabitants, but to the deficiency of nutritive materials in the 

 animals' food, — a conclusion supported by my experience — see 

 Cirrhosis of the Liver — and also by the observations of Conti- 

 nental farmers, who believe it due to the exhaustion of the soil, 

 weakened for want of proper cultivation ; and it is remarkable 

 to observe that lupin when first grown upon poor land may 

 induce the disease, but is innocuous from land in which it has 

 been grown for a number of years. 



Ajzain, in Nova Scotia the farmers are also fishermen, and 

 allow their farms to become deteriorated for want of proper 

 cultivation. 



There is nothing said in the report of the " Pictou Cattle Dis- 

 ease " as to whether lupins are grown in the particular districts 

 where the disease prevails, but they are plentiful in America. 

 I am therefore in the dark on this point, and am forced to sup- 

 pose that it is probable that a toxine may be formed in other 

 leguminous plants when grown in poor soils. 



The disease is said to attack the horse, ox, goat, sheep, 

 and deer ; inoculable in the dog, but the rabbit seems to have 

 immunity. 



The disease seems to be most prevalent amongst sheep in 

 Prussia, Silesia, Hanover, North Germany, committing great 

 havoc ; and in the bulletin of the Eoyal College of Economy of 

 Prussia, February 1880, it is stated that out of 240,000 sheep 

 in one district of Pomerauia, 14,000 and 13,000 died in one 

 year. In the Nova Scotia report there is no mention of sheep. 



The disease seems to appear in two forms, viz., an acute 

 form, characterised by acute hepatitis, the liver soft and frialjle, 

 and in some instances enlarged by fatty infiltiation, the fat 

 supposed to be transported from the subcutaneous adipose tissue 

 to the liver ; this is followed, if the animal live, by an acute 

 hepatic atrophy. 



Dr. Wyatt Johnston, Montreal, says — " The condition of the 

 liver in the early stages is a very peculiar one. There is a very 



