342 



Slabherivs in Horses. 



Vol. V. 



To the Editor of the Fanners' Cabinet. 

 Slabbering in Horses. 



Sir, — In the No. of the Cabinet for April, 

 a correspondent attributes the slabbers in 

 horses to the plant called the Spurge (Eu- 

 phorbia maculata,) which is generally found 

 in second crop clover ; and 'not to the clover 

 itself. Now, at that time, I was not prepared 

 to believe that this account was correct, for 

 I had never noticed that plant to infest par- 

 ticularly the second crop of clover, and not 

 ihe^rs^; besides, I had always been tauglit to 

 believe it was the clover itself which Vy'asthe 

 deleterious substance ; and never before hav- 

 ing heard that the thing had been doubted, I 

 confess that your correspondent's new notion 

 had but little weight with me. 



I find, however, that the idea is by no means 

 new, for in the 2d volume of the Memoirs of 

 the Philadelphia Society for promoting Agri- 

 culture, page 350, there is a valuable paper 

 on this subject, written by Mr. A. Parlee, 

 dated Wilmington, Del., 1810, in which it is 

 made evident by experiment, that this plant 

 is at least one of the causes of that singular 

 disease, and goes far to exonerate clover, in 

 any stage, from the charge of any poisonous 

 quality whatever. Permit me to copy it for 

 your pages. 



" I communicate to you the result of some 

 observations and experiments which I have 

 made on the spotted Spurge (Euphorbia ma- 

 culata,) relative to its being the cause of the 

 salivation that occurs so frequently amongst 

 liorsos while feeding the second crop of clo- 

 ver. The occurrence of a profuse discharge 

 of saliva from horses, and its rapid production 

 of great debility and emaciation, had net only 

 excited the surprise of many of the farmers, 

 but had also given rise to various conjectures 

 as to the cause of it : opinions were founded 

 on no substantial data, but often originated 

 from the most vague surmises ; by many, it 

 was imputed solely to a peculiar quality in- 

 lierent in the second crop of clover, as it gen- 

 erally first appeared when the animals were 

 put to pasture on it; and the disease being 

 almost exclusively confined to that descrip- 

 tion of pasturage, this was considered a cor- 

 roborating evidence of the correctness of the 

 hypothesis: but its not having occurred for 

 many years after clover had been extensively 

 cultivated, and never having occurred in 

 many places where horses are pastured alto- 

 gether on clover, sufficiently proved that 

 opinion to be erroneous. It was then attri- 

 buted to the effects of piaster — but from the 

 occurrence of it on many farms where plaster 

 had never been used, as well as its not having 

 occurred where it had been used very copi- 

 ously, this opinion was proved to be equally 

 incorrect with the former. 



" For the purpose of ascertaining the fact 

 by experiment, I procured a small quantity 

 of the Euphorbia maculata, and gave it to a 

 horse, enveloped in a small quantity of clover, 

 carefully gathered, stem by stem, and per- 

 fectly free from all other vegetables or extra- 

 neous matter whatever : a pi eternatural dis- 

 charge of saliva took place in half an hour. 

 This experiment was frequently repeated, 

 and invariably with the same result. Again, 

 to prove that clover did not contribute to- 

 wards it, in some cases other grasses were 

 used as an envelope, with the same effect; 

 and when the horse was perfectly free from 

 slabbering, a considerable quantity of clover, 

 carefully gathered without the Euphorbia, 

 was given to him, and no such effect waa 

 produced. These experiments I considered 

 sufiicient to prove that the Euphorbia macu- 

 lata would produce salivation, and I am in- 

 duced to think it is the general, if not the 

 only cause of it. This plant, delighting in 

 the well-cultivated clover ground, sends oflf 

 many slender spreading branches about the 

 height of the second crop, and is then very 

 liable to be taken in with the clover by the 

 larger-mouthed animals: but whether this 

 species of Euphorbia has flourished for a long 

 time in this part of the country, or has but 

 lately migrated into it, 1 have not ascer- 

 tained ; but in either case, its having but re- 

 cently intruded itself into the pasture fields 

 can be easily accounted for : it comes for- 

 ward, flowers, and ripens its seed about the 

 same time with the second crop of clover ; 

 and as clover-seed is generally gathered from 

 the second crop, it must be very liable to 

 have some of the seed of Euphorbia gathered 

 with it, and may in this way be extensively 

 diffused over the country. The slabbering 

 was observed in the neighbourhood of West- 

 chester before it was seen in this neighbour- 

 hood ; and as the farmers here have generally 

 obtained their clover-seed from thence, it 

 seems highly probable that it has been intro- 

 duced in that manner. 



"All the plants of the genus Euphorbia 

 contain an extremely acrid juice; many of 

 them stand at the head of the catalogue of 

 vegetable poisons ; some of them when rubbed 

 on the skin will produce excoriation ; and the 

 least acrid of them, when taken into the 

 mouth, act as powerful masticatories ; but the 

 macularia possesses its greatest acrimony 

 when in flower, or a little before, and at that 

 time the salivation has been observed to be 

 most prevalent. Most plants, when thorough- 

 ly dried in the sun, lose much of their virtue ; 

 and this is also the case with the Euphorbia ; 

 and for this reason hay, when containing it, 

 if thoroughly dried in the sun, will not be 

 near so productive of salivation as when it 

 has been dried in the shade ; and this circum 



