PLANTS POISONOUS TO STOCK. 225 



sold for feeding, represents the principal source of this form of 

 poisoning. 



The symptoms are very vague. There is indigestion, with a ten- 

 dency to nausea, and vomiting. Diarrhoea may be present : At a later 

 stage the heart and nervous system are affected. The gait becomes hesi- 

 tating, the animals show general dulness and spasm of the pharynx; 

 death, when occurring, is by cardiac or respiratory syncope. 



Treatment consists in giving an entire change of food, and adminis- 

 tering stimulants and purgatives. 



AGARICACE^ (MUSHROOM FAMILY). 



Amanita muscaria.^The well-known fly amanita (fly fungus ; deadly 

 amanita) may be found from spring to early winter in pine forests 

 throughout the United States. Cows are supposed to he killed by eating 

 it, and almost every year the daily papers chronicle the death of several 

 human beings who were led to eat the fungus through mistake for some 

 edible species. The fresh cap is frequently rubbed up with milk and 

 used to poison flies. 



PHALLACE^ (stink-horn FAMILY). 



*CIathrus columnatus. — In an article published in the Botanical 

 Gazette (Vol. XV. p. 45), Dr. Farlow, of Harvard University, gives an 

 account of an investigation of a case of poisoning in hogs which was 

 caused by eating this peculiar fungus. It grows in patches in oak woods 

 and oi)enings, and is quite common throughout the Southern States." 



POLYPODIACE^ (fern FAMILY). 



Pteris aquilina. — In July, 1895, nineteen cattle died in Maryland, 

 which were supposed to have been poisoned by eating the common 

 bracken fern. Very few similar cases are on record, but one European 

 authority cites one in which five horses w^ere killed by eating hay con- 

 taminated with this fern, and another states that cases are quite frequent 

 among cattle in England. 



EQUISETACE.E (hORSETAIL FAMILY). 



Equisetum arvense. — The field horsetail was reported from Con- 

 necticut in 1871 as being poisonous to horses. Cases are very rare, and 

 it is probable that this plant is deleterious only when eaten in consider- 

 able quantity, and then perhaps only on account of its physical character. 

 Experiments made in Europe show that a similar species {E. iialustrc) is 

 fatal to horses w^hen fed in considerable quantity wdth hay. 



D.C. Q 



