68 THE FUNGI PREVAIL AT NIGHT 



which, with obstinate vomiting and costiveness, peculiar, 

 soft enlargement of the tongue, and an abdominal pulsa- 

 tion, most distinctly felt to the right of the umbilicus, 

 constitute the marked distinctions of this malady. 



The animals made sick by the beef of the first one, 

 have been, in their turn, the cause of a like affection in 

 others; so that three or four have thus fallen victims suc- 

 cessively. 



Whatever the poison may be, it resisted the influence 

 of the cook, in all the customary modes of preparation, 

 also the action of diluted acids, and alkaline solutions, 

 and chlorine, and some of the chlorides. Infusion of 

 galls alone seemed to abate, but not to destroy its viru- 

 lence. The water, in which poisoned beef had been boiled, 

 acquired no poisonous properties; while the beef remained 

 as noxious as ever. Butter from diseased cows, heated 

 until it caught fire, did not lose its deleterious proper- 

 ties. (Graaf.) The urine of diseased animals, collected 

 and reduced by evaporation, produced the characteristic 

 symptoms. Milk of affected cows, or sluts, was very 

 poisonous to their own young as well as to other animals, 

 whilst the lactation preserved themselves from the malady, 

 so long as they were milked regularly. 



The animals originally affected, are only such as live 

 upon herbage, such as cows, horses, goats, and sheep. 

 The pastures in which the disease is found, are always the 

 unbroken soil of the new country. The action of the 

 plough, e^en for a single season, is regarded by most au- 

 thors as & permanent corrective. 



Whatever may be the poison, its most potent activity 

 exists in the end of summer and in autumn, chiefly in Sep- 

 tember and October. One writer denies the truth of this 

 statement, but a large number assert it very positively. 



