66 THE FUNGI PREVAIL AT NIGHT 



J. S. Michael Leger, published at Vienna, in 1775, a 

 treatise concerning the mildew as the principal cause of 

 epidemic disease among cattle. The mildew is that which 

 burns and dries the grass and leaves. It is observed early 

 in the morning, particularly after thunder-storms. Its 

 poisonous quality, which does not last above twenty-four 

 hours, never operates but when it is swallowed immedi- 

 ately after its falling. 



There is, in the wild regions of our own western coun- 

 try, a disease called the milk-sicJcness, the trembles, the 

 tires, the slows, the stiff-joints, the puking fever, &c. Of 

 this curious malady, I have already, gentlemen, given you 

 in its proper place, an elaborate history; but it may not 

 be useless here, to recapitulate the leading thoughts of that 

 lecture. 



An animal affected by the cause alluded to, usually ex- 

 hibits the symptoms of the disease upon being driven hard 

 for a very short distance, perhaps only a hundred yards.* 

 It then trembles, loses its regular power of locomotion, 

 staggers, falls, makes ineffectual attempts to rise, becomes 

 convulsed, and dies. When the affection arrives under 

 quietude, the animal seems to lose its voluntary route, and 

 strays irregularly and apparently without motive. Its 

 power of attention is impaired, the eyes become red and 

 turgid, and the color deepens from a bright to a dark red. 

 Finally, it trembles, staggers and dies. When other ani- 

 mals men,* dogs, cats, poultry, crows, buzzards and hogs 

 drink the milk or eat the flesh of a diseased cow, they suf- 

 fer in a somewhat different manner. The attack in men 



* This reminds us of tlie tetanode state of a frog, which being affected 

 by a small dose of strychnia, falls into convulsions at the touch even of a 

 feather. Marshall Hall recognizes the resemblance in this, to a diseased 

 predisposition, waiting for an exciting cause. 



