196 VETERINAEY TOXICOLOGY 



MELIACEiG. 



This order is tropical, and comprises Melia Azedarach, 

 or the Chinese umbrella-tree, grown in Central Europe and 

 the United States, and escaped from cultivation in the 

 South. Hogs are stated to have been poisoned in Arizona 

 by ignorant feeding of the seeds. T. J. Symonds * refers to 

 Azadirachta Indica as a drastic purgative, the juice of the 

 leaves being used as an anthelmintic, emmenagogue, and 

 diuretic. 



Poisoning, which specially affects x>^9S' is marked by 

 nausea, vomition, violent colic, and tympanites, followed 

 by diarrhoea, sweating, convulsions, uncertain gait, and 

 intense thirst. The lesions are those of intestinal inflam- 

 mation. 



CELASTRACE-ffi;. 



Botanical Characters. — This order is represented in 

 Britain by the Euonymus europceus, spindle-tree or skewer- 

 wood (Fig. 26). A glabrous shrub, about 3 to 5 feet high. 

 Leaves shortly stalked, ovate-oblong, or lanceolate, pointed, 

 and minutely toothed. Peduncles shorter than the leaves, 

 with seldom more than three or five flowers, of a yellowish- 

 green colour. Petals four, obovate, about 2 lines long, the 

 stamens half that length. Fruit quadrangular, red when 

 ripe, opening at the angles so as to show the seeds enclosed 

 in a brilliant orange-coloured aril. The shrub is frequent in 

 parts of England in hedges. Animals eat the young leaves 

 in early summer, when the poisonous effects are greater 

 than in the autumn. 



Active Principle. — The euonymus contains a glucoside 

 called euonymin, belonging to the group of purgatives. 



Eifeets. — The effects, lesions, and treatment of poisoning 

 by euonymus are like those of other vegetable purgatives, 

 and need not therefore be again detailed, especially as 

 recorded cases are very few. 



* Quarterly Jl. of Veterinary Science in India, 1886, p. 77. 



