50 MANUAL OF POISONOUS PLANTS 



reported to the writer by an Iowa farmer, a cow which had eaten freely of the 

 roots, fell into a spasm when brought into the barnyard. The animal, how- 

 ever, rose, walked one hundred feet and fell again, got up again, walked about 

 thirty rods, fell and died in about thirty minutes. In a second case, a yearling 

 owned by the same man had been in good healthy condition but began to dis- 

 play the same symptoms and died in twenty minutes. 



Dr. E. S. McCord, on September 31, of the same year, gave an old horse 

 six drachms, hypodermically, of a strong decoction of the root In fifteen 

 minutes the animal showed uneasiness; pulse was full and fast; in a short 

 time the animal laid down, and the pulse decreased ; the horse was in great 

 pain and kept moving the extremities; the pulse was weak but the patient 

 finally recovered. The botanist of the Oregon Experiment Station found that 

 the root has less of the toxic substance in the summer than in the winter and 

 spring, which may account for the failure in this last case to produce death. 

 In frogs, frequency of breathing is increased, tetanic convulsions follow, grad- 

 ually paresis of the extremities, and lastly full paralysis and death. Cicutoxin, 



Fig. 16a. Poison Hemlock (Conium mac- 

 it la turn), native to Europe; naturalized in the 

 U. S. (U. S. Dept. Agrl.). 



the characteristic poison of Cicuta, acts especially upon the medulla oblongata; 

 the brain and spinal cord are merely secondary seats of its action. 



Treatment. The stomach should be effectually evacuated by the use of the 

 stomach pump or by a strong emetic. External and internal stimulants such 

 as whisky should be applied; anaesthetics and narcotics used to control the 

 spasms; hypodermic injection of morphin aids in recovery. It usually hap- 



