66 PASTORAL AND AGRICULTURAL BOTANY 



The plant is acrid, irritant and narcotic, emetic and purgative, Chel- 

 erythrin causes violent sneezing, if inhaled, and causes vomiting if taken 

 internally. 



Poppies (Papaver spp.}. Two old world plants of this genus the corn 

 poppy (Papaver Rhoeas) and the long smooth fruited poppy (Papaver 

 dubium) are of sufficient interest to be included in our list of poisonous 

 plants, especially as their relationship to the opium poppy (Papaver 

 somniferum) enables us to refer to this perhaps the most important plant 

 of a medicinal kind, the source of a useful drug, which properly controlled 

 is beneficial, but if improperly used is the cause of more misery than any 

 other drug employed by mankind. 



General Considerations. Poisoning by the above mentioned poppies 

 is not common, but the corn poppy has been known to poison animal 

 when mixed with green fodder, or by the ingestion of seeds and capsules 

 with waste materials taken in with the food. Ordinarily stock refuse 

 to eat the plants, because they have an unpleasant odor and taste. Horses, 

 cattle and pigs have been poisoned by eating Papaver dubium. 



The drug acts more powerfully upon man than upon the lower animals, 

 especially ruminants, who are comparatively insusceptible. 



Symptoms. With regard to the symptoms produced in animals, 

 Dr. Winslow says: "Ounce doses of the drug cause, in cattle, restlessness, 

 excitement, hoarse bellowing, dry mouth, nausea, indigestion and tym- 

 panites. Sheep are affected much in the same manner. One to two 

 drachms of morphin have led to fatality in cattle. Fifteen to thirty 

 grains of the alkaloid comprise a lethal dose for sheep. Swine are various- 

 ly influenced, sometimes excited, sometimes dull and drowsy." With 

 horses it sometimes causes drowsiness at other times has no visible effect. 

 Horses have recovered from an ounce of opium, but two and one half 

 ounces of the drug and one hundred grains of morphin. have proved fatal. 

 Cornevin describes the symptoms in cattle as excitement, pawing of 

 the soil or litter, increased respiration and more rapid pulse, followed by 

 stoppage of digestion sometimes with a swelling of the eyelids and coma. 

 Cattle move about with an unsteady gait. Finally the animals fall, and 

 if poisoned fatally, it remains stretched on the ground respiration becomes 

 slower, the temperature falls, with convulsions and death by asphyxia. 

 Miiller notes wildness of look, dilatation of pupil convulsions, coma and 

 symptoms of depression. There is bloating, constipation, bloody diar- 

 rhoea (at times) and salivation. Death is rare. 



