64 PASTORAL AND AGRICULTURAL BOTANY 



the animal dying in one of the fits. The digestive action appears normal. 

 There is a slight lowering of the temperature, the pulse becomes frequent 

 and the respiration rapid and shallow. The nervous symptoms are 

 simply those of excitement and the appetite is fair. Cattle and horses 

 are the animals usually killed by ea.ting these plants (Fig. 27). Sheep are 

 rarely injured. 



Treatment. The California Experiment Station recommends the 

 following medicine for subcutaneous injection by a hypodermic syringe. 



Physostigmin salicylate, one grain. 



Pilocarpin hydrochloride, two grains. 



Strychnin sulfate, one-half grain. 



These quantities are for an animal weighing five hundred or six hundred 

 pounds. This remedy relieves constipation and stimulates respiration. 

 The dose should not be repeated. Poisoned animals should be kept quiet 

 with the head kept higher than the other parts. Grubbing out the plants 

 has been found to be the best method of preventing loss of cattle from 

 larkspur poisoning. 



Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris). This stout, smooth herb is a 

 native of Europe and in America it is found in swamps and meadows 

 from Newfoundland to South Carolina and Nebraska, flowering from Apiil 

 to June. The reports about the plant are most contradictory. In some 

 places, the flower buds are pickled, eaten and used fresh as a pot herb. 

 Stebler and Schroeter say that it is poisonous in a green state, and Rusby 

 states that fed with hay, it produces diarrhoea and stoppage of the flow of 

 milk. Rafinesque asserts that cattle die of the inflammation of the stom- 

 ach, while it causes hematuria, according to Freidberger and Frohner. 



May-apple (Podophyllum peltatum.} This perennial herb has a 

 long creeping rootstock from which the stem with 2 peltatel eaves arises 

 bearing a single, creamy-white flower with 6 unequal sepals, 6-9 

 petals, 12-18 stamens and a single-celled ovary. 



Symptoms. The Indians were acquainted with its medicinal virtues 

 and the writer on inquiring the use of the plant of an old negro herb doctor, 

 who was gathering the rhizomes in the woods near Philadelphia, replied, 

 "boss, it is good for the bowels." The old colored man recognized its 

 purgative qualities in small doses. Dr. Winslow says: "The action is ex- 

 erted mainly on the duodenum, which is intensely inflamed and even 

 ulcerated in poisoning. Podophyllin directly increases the secretion 

 of the bile in small doses, while purgative quantities hasten its excretion 



