164 Management and Treatmejit of the Horse. 



The juice of the plant is a powerful vesicant, and 

 prior to the introduction of cantharides was used 

 by medical men for that purpose. Owing, perhaps, 

 to its universality and abundance in our pastures, 

 it has come to be regarded as innocuous, or at 

 least without suspicion of being productive of 

 any bad effects. No cases, so far as I am aware, 

 are recorded of its effects on cattle or sheep in 

 this country, although its effect upon the latter 

 have been observed on the Continent. Cases crop 

 up from time to time in which horses are thought 

 to be suffering from influenza, when, after a 

 thorough investigation, the mischief is found in 

 the horse having had lawn-mowings given it 

 in which was an abundance of buttercup. The 

 symptoms of poisoning by buttercup are first, a 

 spasmodic action of the glottis, shortening and 

 rigidity of the muscles of the neck, and violent 

 contraction of the abdominal muscles, followed 

 by a discharge of fluid through the nostrils ; in- 

 deed, all the phenomena usually present in a 

 complete act of vomition. In cases of vomiting, 

 from rupture or over- gorging with other kinds of 

 food, the act is much more of a passive kind. 

 There is a stretching out of the head and neck, 

 little, if any, abdominal effort, and the peculiar 

 spasmodic action in the pharynx is not observable 

 until the return of the ingesta from the stomach, 

 when a choking sound is heard during its passage 

 through the posterior nares, when generally some 

 of it falls back into the trachea, causing a fit of 

 coughing, after which the head is extended, and 

 the watery fluid trickles through the nostrils. I 



