12 



BULLETIN 1012, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



was a very high rate in the acute stages of the sickness. That this 

 symptom did not appear in the Z. paniculatus cases may be explained 

 by the fact that most of the animals were not very sick; that is, the 

 sickness could not be considered as acute at any time. It did occur, 

 however, in Sheep 569, which was very sick. This animal, too, 

 as well as Sheep 644 and 647, exhibited labored breathing. It may 

 be remarked, in this connection, that under normal conditions there 

 is frequently great variation in the respiration of sheep; under excite- 

 ment the rate may be temporarily very high. 



Other symptoms. Some of the annuals groaned and gnashed their 

 teeth during the sickness, and Sheep 569 and Sheep 647 went into 

 a condition of coma. Coma is also a frequent symptom in the 

 animals made very sick by Z. gramineus, as shown in Bulletin 125. 



In general, the symptoms were practically identical with those 

 seen in Z. gramineus cases, but less pronounced, because of the 

 smaller toxicity of Z. paniculatus as compared with Z. gramineus. 



DURATION OF SYMPTOMS. 



The following table shows the time that elapsed between the first 

 and last observed symptoms. It should be noted that this probably 

 does not indicate accurately the entire time during which the animals 

 were sick, because in many cases the sickness persisted for a greater 

 or less time after the last note was made. 



TABLE 2. Duration of symptoms. 



The average in all the force-fed sheep cases, 25 in number, was 36 

 hours and 2J minutes. The minimum was a single observation in 

 Sheep 582, and the maximum was 4 days in Sheep 569. Sheep 569 

 644, and 647 were very sick, but it is not at all clear that in other 



