LOCOWEED DISEASE OF SHEEP 429 



averaged over 7,000,000 red corpuscles, with hemoglobin averaging 85 per 

 cent. The hemoglobin estimations on ten healthy sheep gave an average 

 of 87 per cent; on fourteen locoes the average was 78 per cent. 



Now these figures given by Marsh show that in none of his cases was 

 the hemoglobin reduced to an extreme degree even in the worst cases re- 

 corded, while in the sheep it was relatively insignificant. Although the 

 red corpuscles in some of the severe cases were reduced nearly one-half, it 

 seems peculiar, with the high hemoglobin count, that the anemia alone 

 should be severe enough to explain the remarkable and characteristic 

 serous collections in the heart, spinal canal, and elsewhere. 



With regard to the white blood corpuscles Marsh states, (p. 96), that 

 "An average of twelve locoes in 1907 showed 3,735 white corpuscles." 

 This is the only observation which he records upon the white corpuscles, 

 and it cannot be reconciled with his conclusion (p. 114) that the blood was 

 "commonly rather rich in leukocytes." According to Marek {Klin. Diag- 

 nostik der inneren Krankheiten der Haustiere, pp. 869-887), the white cor- 

 puscles of cattle vary between 7,000 and 10,000 during health, so that 

 Marsh's average of 3,735 actually shows a decided reduction and not an 

 increase. According to Marek the red corpuscles of cattle vary in health 

 between 5,000,000 and 7,000,000 per 1 cc, the hemoglobin averaging 65 

 per cent by the Gowers, or v.Fleischl methods of estimation, which would 

 give a somewhat higher normal reading by the Tallquist method employed 

 by Marsh. In sheep, according to Marek, the normal red count runs from 

 8,000,000 to 11,000,000; hemoglobin about 55 per cent. Comparing these 

 standards of healthy livestock with blood determinations recorded by 

 Marsh, it is seen Marsh records no cases of severe anemia, and it seems im- 

 probable that what he calls "serous accumulations" were the result of 

 anemia. 



Marsh studied loco disease in sheep during 1906 and 1907. During 

 1906, sixty-three yearling bucks and six lambs were studied. All were sup- 

 posed to be locoed at the time they were received, and some were very 

 weak and in bad general condition (p. 66) . Soon after the first lot of bucks 

 were received at the experimental camp, they were fed upon hay mixed 

 with locoweed {Aragallus lamberti). Only twelve of these "locoed" animals 

 would eat the weed at all and even they would only nibble at it; The others did 

 not eat the plant at all, although they were locoed sheep in bad general con- 

 dition — presumably advanced locoes (italics are mine) . As the season wore 

 on all of them ate more or less locoweed, just how much could not be deter- 

 mined. There were some which ate nothing but locoweed. It is to be ob- 

 served that these sheep were "locoed" when Marsh received them but 



