58 PASTURE AND RANGE. 



eat enough to harm them. In the case of cattle the re- 

 sults are quite different, the plant proving very poison- 

 ous, especially in the early spring when the cattle eat the 

 young growth greedily. Poisoning also occurs at other 

 times, when animals are changed to a new range, or in 

 autumn when other plants are covered by snow and cattle 

 are sometimes tempted to feed on the projecting seed cap- 

 sules of the taller forms. 



The principal poisons contained are two alkaloids, del- 



phinin and staphisagrin, of which the former is the more 



harmful. The first symptoms noticed are 



Poisons a stiffness of the limbs, and a somewhat 



Contained and .... 



Symptoms straddling gait. Respiration is slow at 



first, then rapid. In one heifer it in- 

 creased to 128 per minute. The appetite is not much im- 

 paired and the brain functions normally, though the sick 

 animals are easily frightened. There is constipation and 

 abdominal pain, and in the later stages nausea and 

 vomiting, from which death often results by suffocation. 

 Bloating is sometimes present, but is not common before 

 death, although taking place rapidly afterward. A quiv- 

 ering of the muscles and weakness is prominent, the legs 

 crumpling up under the animal- Congestion of heart, 

 lungs and central nervous system and inflammation espe- 

 cially of the rumen, the oesophagus and the pyloric end 

 of the fourth stomach are post-mortem indications. The 

 alkaloid evidently acts as a local irritant and a nerve de- 

 pressant. If recovery takes place it is usually very rapid. 

 The treatment indicated is (1) magnesium sulphate to 

 overcome the constipation, (2) a chemical antidote for 

 Tr the poison remaining in the stomach, and (3) 



injections of a physiological antidote for that 

 which has been absorbed. Chesnut and Wilcox recom- 



