518 Veterinary Medicine. 



lb. twice daily. In 35 days more he showed marked symptoms 

 of the cirrhosis : — drowsy, eyes amaurotic, conjunctiva red, 

 mouth clammy, faeces scanty and hard, mastication slow, fre- 

 quent yawning, swayed and staggered in walking, and in lying 

 rested his muzzle constantly on the ground. Two days later he 

 was very much worse, temperature 96.6°, pulse 86, respiration 

 40, stood with head resting in the manger and pressing against 

 the wall, body swayed with sudden jerks to recover balance, urine 

 abundant, dark colored, viscous, foetid, no faeces, eyes half closed, 

 led out he swayed, walked in a circle, dragged the hind limbs 

 and knuckled over at the fetlock. He died next morning. Iyiver 

 cirrhotic, but no yellowness of the tissues. 



Senecio Poisoning in Other Countries. Gilruth quotes the 

 old herbalist name of Senecio Jacoboea as staggerwort, which 

 suggests a recognition of its pathogenic effects on the liver in 

 the distant past ; also epizootics of stomach staggers in the dry 

 years 1800 and 18 19, " which were supposed to arise from the 

 animals eating ragwort or staggerwort. ' ' He further quotes Wal- 

 ley on a common ' ' interstitial inflammation of the liver, in cat- 

 tle ;" McFadyean " two cases of biliary cirrhosis in the horse ;" 

 and Williams, Dixon's " three cases of biliary cirrhosis in horses 

 on the same farm, ' ' but without suspicion that they were con- 

 nected with Senecio Jacoboea. It can only be said that the plant 

 is well known in England, and might well be eaten in dry sea- 

 sons or when pastures were bare. 



In Germany the Schweinsberger disease referred to above 

 (page 513), offers a close parallel, occurring as it does in partic- 

 ular valleys only, pursuing a chronic progression, and proving 

 generally fatal in the end. (See Cirrhosis in the horse). 



In America the hepatic cirrhosis of S. Dakota is significant. 

 This is known as the Bottom L,and Disease, suggesting a toxic 

 vegetable origin, but is vulgarly ascribed to Rattlebox (jZrotolaria 

 Sagitalis. ) This may be the essential cause, but it is not im- 

 probable that the Senecio has also been scattered widely on the 

 bottoms, the seat of frequent inundations. The disease, in its 

 symptoms and progress agrees with the Senecio poisoning : there 

 is its circumscribed prevalence, its chronic character, its steadily 

 advancing progress, the digestive disorders, the icteric urine and 

 mucosae, the encreasing dullness, languor, weakness and emaci- 



