194 VETERINARY TOXICOLOGY 



Symptoms.— Animals refuse to eat the corn-cockle plant, 

 and generally poisoning is the result of the ignorant feeding 

 of the grains, or fraudulent admixture of the flour with meal. 

 Cornevin gives the approximate lethal doses of the flour 

 as 18 grains and 7 grains per pound body weight for the ox 

 and pig respectively, about twice that proportion of the 

 whole grain being needed. Pigs reject large doses by 

 '/omiting, but small doses repeated over a long interval give 

 rise to chronic poisoning. 



In the acute poisoning of horses there is copious saliva- 

 tion, colic, pallor of the mucous membranes, pulse small and 

 rapid, elevated temperature, and accelerated respiration. 

 The faeces , are diarrhoeic and foetid. Muscular tremors 

 and rigidity set in, followed by collapse, coma, and death, 

 without convulsions. 



Cattle display similar gastric disturbances. A period of 

 coma is also reached, during which there is continual 

 passage of diarrhoea, gradual loss of motor and sensory 

 powers, and death. 



According to Cornevin, Arenaria does not poison, but 

 causes great salivation. 



Post-Moptem Appearances. — After subcutaneous injec- 

 tion of saponin, there is no gastro-enteritis, although the 

 alimentary canal is emptied by reason of the purgation and 

 vomiting. But after the poison has been taken by the 

 mouth, there is inflammation, sometimes extending through- 

 out the alimentary tract. The contents are always foetid, 

 and mixed with bloody mucus. There is congestion of the 

 cerebral meninges and lungs, the kidneys may be a little 

 inflamed, and the liver normal. 



Treatment. — The treatment of poisoning should consist 

 of removal of the cause, opiates against pain, and stimu- 

 lants as indicated. 



Chemical Diagnosis. — There is little prospect of a satis- 

 factory recovery of saponin from ingesta or organs after 

 poisoning. Search should be directed to the discovery of 

 the starch grains of corn-cockle in the food. The starch of 

 corn-cockle requires more iodine to induce the blue starch 



