TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 99 
1. The Toot-poison belongs to the class of Narcotico-irritants. 
a. Its action on man includes the following symptoms :—coma, with or without 
delirium ; sometimes great muscular excitement or convulsions, the details differ- 
ing in different individuals; during convalescence, loss of memory, with or with- 
out vertigo. 
6, In cattle and sheep, they include vertigo, stupor, delirium, and convulsions; 
curious staggerings and gyrations; frantic kicking, and racing or coursing; 
tremors. 
2. The poisonous portion of the plant, 
a. To man, is generally the Seed, which is contained in a beautiful, dark purple, 
luscious berry, resembling the blackberry, which clusters closely in rich pendent 
racemes, and which is most tempting to children ; occasionally the young Shoots of 
the plant, as it grows up in spring: 
b. To cattle and sheep, in almost all cases, is the young Shoot, which is tender 
and succulent, resembling in appearance and taste the similar state of asparagus. 
3. The following Peeuliarities exist in regard to the action of the Toot-poison :— 
a. A predisposition must exist, such predisposition being produced in cattle and 
sheep by some of the following conditions or cireumstances :—The animal is not 
habituated to the use of the plant; it suddenly makes a large meal thereof after 
long fasting, or long feeding on drier and less palatable materials, or after exhaus- 
tion by hard labour or hot, dry weather. From some such cause, the digestive 
system is deranged, and is susceptible of more serious disorder from the inges- 
tion of food to which the animal is, at the time, unaccustomed. Hence Toot- 
poisoning frequently occurs in animals which have just been landed from a long 
and fatiguing sea-voyage during which they have been underfed or starved, to 
whom the young Toot-shoots present the most juicy, fresh, pleasant diet. 
6. On the other hand, the same kinds of animals, habituated to the use of the 
Toot-plant, not only do not suffer at all, but for them it is regarded as quite equal 
in value to, and as safe as, clover as a pastoral food. It is an equal favourite 
with cattle and sheep, whether they have been habituated or not. 
e. The predisposition in man is probably produced by analogous conditions 
depressing the tone of his nervous and digestive systems, or directly deranging 
them. Children are affected out of all proportion to adults, 
d. Adults who have suffered from the poisonous action of Toot under certain 
circumstances have been exempt from such action under certain others—the same 
parts of the plant having been used, and apparently in the same way, in both sets 
of instances: Moreover, the Toot-berries enjoy, both among the Maoris and 
colonists, an enviable notoriety on account of the agreeable and harmless wine and 
jellies they are capable of yielding, the former whereof especially has long been 
greatly prized. The seeds, however, in these cases probably do not enter into 
the composition of the said wine and jellies. 
4. The current Remedies for Toot-poisoning among the settlers are, in regard to— ° 
a. Cattle and sheep—mainly bleeding, by slashing the ears and tails. Bella- 
donna has been variously tried, and favourably reported on; by others, stimulants 
are regarded as specifics (carbonate of ammonia, brandy, or a mixture of gin and 
turpentine, locally known as “ Drench”), Whatever be the nature of the remedy, 
there is no difference of opinion as to the necessity for the promptest treatment, 
since, at a certain stage of the action of the poison, ai remedies appear equally 
inefficacious. 
b. In man the nature of the remedy is still more varied, though emetics and 
stimulants seem the most rational of those usually had recourse to. 
5. The Yoot- or Tutu-plant is the Coriaria ruscifolia, L. (the C. sarmentosa, 
Forst.)._ The plant is variously designated by Maoris and settlers in different parts 
of the New Zealand islands ; and this of itself indicates how familiar it is, and how 
abundantly and widely distributed. The genus Coriaria is a small one, and, if 
not belonging to a subdivision of the natural order Ochnacee, probably represents 
a separate order closely allied thereto and to the Rutacee. The most distin- 
guished botanists, however, are at issue as to its precise place and alliances in the 
vegetable system. They are in similar dubiety as to the species of the genus, and 
the varieties of the species C. ruscifolia, L. In New Zealand there appear to be 
haa 
