MENTAL DIFFERENCE AND DISORDER. 211 



nocuous to certain other animals. 1 Moreover, the same plant 

 may be poisonous to the same species or individuals under 

 certain circumstances, and innocuous under certain others. 



This is well illustrated by the effects on cattle and sheep 

 of the tutu or toot plant of New Zealand pastures, of which 

 plant, in its young succulent state, both animals are very- 

 fond. Writing specially of the province of Otago in 1874, a 

 colonist thus describes the varying effects of the tutu. 2 ' To 

 cattle reared where it grows it is innocuous, and proves fat- 

 tening fodder. But if a hungry bullock, unaccustomed to its 

 use, should browse upon its tempting leaves, it will soon be 

 seized with a species of mania, causing it to career and 

 tumble about with violent paroxysms, till the poor brute falls 



exhausted and dies Sheep do not seem to become so 



thoroughly accustomed to the use of it as cattle ; and those 

 feeding amongst it, on being dogged or driven, are apt to be 

 affected by it, or be, as the phrase is, tutued. I have known 

 of sheep feeding for weeks where the tutu grew thick and 

 rank, on being moved a few hundred yards to a paddock 

 where there were only a few straggling plants, being poisoned 

 by them, and begin to drop down in dozens. Whether this 

 was only owing to the excitement of driving, or to some 

 difference in the plant in the two localities, I cannot tell. 

 Sheep get over the effects more easily than cattle, but it 

 leaves more lasting results. A sheep, which has been badly 

 tutued and recovers, loses its gregarious habits and becomes 

 what the shepherds call a hermit. It also acquires an addi- 

 tional amount of stupidity, but yields no worse mutton' 

 (Bathgate). 



Blood-poisoning of all kinds, as in man, is a common 

 cause of mental disorder in other animals. And not only 



1 I pointed this out many years ago as the result of a series of investi- 

 gations conducted in the City Cholera Hospital of Edinburgh on (1) the 

 antagonisms of Drugs ; (2) the antidotes of poisons ; and (3) the non-influence 

 of certain poisons on certain animals. Vide the * Association Medical Journal ' 

 for June 9, 1854. 



2 Coriaria rmcifolia of botanists. As may be seen from the Bibliography,' 

 I had many years previously in 1862 and 1865 fully described the effects 

 on mind and habits of this narcotico-irritant poison, both in man and in the 

 lower animals. 



p 2 



