^J JEupTiorhiaceae 67 



Symptoms. As regards E. Laihyris Chesnut says that on the skin 

 the juice causes redness, itching, pimples, and sometimes gangrene. 

 The seeds when eaten inflame the mouth and stomach, cause vomiting 

 and intense diarrhoea, and if the iUness is serious, nervous disorders, 

 unconsciousness, collapse, and death. 



The Euphorbias have an acrid effect on the mouth, and severe 

 poisoning may follow their use as aperients— burning mouth, swelhng 

 tongue, stomach pains, cold skin, vertigo, fainting or syncope, and 

 even death in two or three days (Esser). 



Similar symptoms are given by Comevin, who states that the 

 Euphorbias have an irritating effect on the mucous membrane, especially 

 at the back of the mouth. In from three quarters of an hour to two 

 hours after eating the plant, or even longer, there is painful vomiting, 

 followed by diarrhoeic evacuations, with a lowering of the temperature. 

 If the quantity ingested has been suflS.cient there appear also nervous 

 symptoms, vertigo, dehrium, muscular tremors, and respiratory and 

 circulatory troubles which disappear after abundant sweating if the 

 poisoning is not fatal. If it is fatal the symptoms of superpurgation 

 and enteritis predominate, but are accompanied by nervous symptoms 

 and circulatory disorders. 



Miiller gives in addition loss of appetite, piteous whining (in goats), 

 groaning, coHc and tympanites ; and Pott, bloating, fever, palpitation 

 of the heart, and loss of consciousness. Cows gave a reddish or sharp- 

 tasting milk. Milk of affected goats caused diarrhoea in human beings. 



REFERENCES. 

 ]9, 52, 53, 73, 81, 82, 130, 141. 190, 213, 216. 



Dog's Mercury {Mercurialis perennis L.) and Annual Mercury 

 {M. annua L.). These two species may be taken together as they have 

 similar poisonous properties, and closely resemble one another, though 

 the former is a perennial and the latter an annual. The plants have a 

 somewhat unpleasant odour, and live stock are not likely to take them 

 unless pressed for readily available green food. The loss of one cow and 

 severe illness of four others was recorded by Blackhurst in the Veterin- 

 ary Journal in 1896 ; Giissow mentioned the loss of cows in the Farmer 

 and Stock Breeder Yearbook, 1907; the loss of horses fed on herbage 

 cut from a hedge and containing M. perennis was recorded in the 

 Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society in 1898 ; the loss of sheep was 

 recorded by Henslow. As regards man, Ray records a case in which 

 a family of five persons suffered severely from eating M. annua fried 



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