154 VETERINAEY TOXICOLOGY 



toxic doses by the mouth per kilogramme body weight 

 are, for the horse, 20 centigrammes ; for the ruminants, 

 50 centigrammes ; and for the pig, 25 centigrammes. 



Symptoms. — When taken in a large dose, or in repeated 

 moderate doses, the diuresis, obscured with small doses, 

 gives place to anuria and hsematuria ; there is nausea and 

 diarrhoea with colic in ruminants. When possible, vomition 

 occurs. The respiration is laboured and pulse quickened, 

 and there is agitation and convulsions, followed by a phase 

 of prostration and death. Cornevin states that, in spite of 

 the smell of the plants, pigs in Algeria have died through 

 eating the plant eradicated from pastures and thrown on to 

 the roadside, whilst young animals have succumbed to the 

 leaves in pastures infected by the plant. The lesions are 

 those of alimentary and renal irritation. 



South African Slangkop. 



Two plants are incriminated, on well-authenticated 

 evidence, as the causes of the poisoning, known as slangkop 

 poisoning in the Transvaal and the Cape — viz., Urginea 

 Biirkei, the Transvaal slangkop, and Ornithoglossuvi glaucum, 

 the Cape slangkop. No research appears to have been 

 made on the active principles involved, but it is possible 

 that these plants owe their poisonous properties to gluco- 

 sides allied to scillain, but Cape slangkop is said to 

 resemble colchicuin in its poisonous properties. 



Botanical Characters. — The Transvaal slangkop has 

 a reddish-brown bulb from 3 to 4 inches in diameter. The 

 outer scales are easily removed, and have a blood-like 

 colour when held up to the light. With the first rains it 

 puts up a succulent stalk bearing the green flower-buds, 

 and resembling a snake's head, whence the vernacular 

 name, slangkop. The bluish-green leaves form a spike of 

 from five to seven leaves about 6 to 9 inches long, ^ inch 

 wide, with curved edges, and tapering to the point. The 

 flower-spike and leaves may thus each cause poisoning at 

 different seasons. 



