POISONOUS PLANTS 225 



He observed persistent diarrhoea (in cattle diminished 

 lactation), the coat dry and staring, no desire for food, and 

 straining soon sets in. At first slight, the straining quickly 

 increases in frequency (fifteen per minute) until just before 

 death. As a result the rectum is often everted and blood- 

 vessels ruptured. Prom the commencement of straining 

 there is great pain, the animals sometimes lying down and 

 groaning, with head outstretched, or sometimes standing 

 and getting into a frenzied condition. Eventually there is 

 unconsciousness, and death in two to four days after 

 appearance of symptoms. 



F. Chambers * has described the effect of senecio on 

 horses leading to cirrhosis of the liver, and tentatively 

 associates this poisoning with roaring. 



Both authorities agree in the impossibility of a cure 

 unless in very early stages. Chambers says that a horse 

 may be kept alive for a few months by careful feeding, but 

 when let out on the veldt the stomach becomes again 

 engorged with grass, and the original symptoms re- 

 appear. 



Post-Mortem Appearances. — In cattle, according to 

 Chase, these are most prominent in the liver, which has a 

 leathery feel, and on cutting is very tough, with acute 

 venous congestion in a few cases. The organ is reduced in 

 size, slaty -blue in colour, and has lost the sharp edges. 

 The gall-bladder is distended, and may contain as much as 

 32 ounces of bile, very viscid, and yellowish-black to black 

 in colour. The interior of the gall-bladder sometimes has 

 a number of red spots about the size of a pin's head, sorhe- 

 times also seen on the interior of the urinary bladder and 

 on both surfaces of the heart membrane. The first three 

 stomachs are healthy, the fourth covered with hsemorrhagie 

 spots. A thickening by a submucous gelatinous exudate of 

 the folds of the mucous membrane is a constant lesion. 

 There is generally inflammation of the small intestines, and 

 the bloodvessels of the last part of the canal are congested 

 on account of the straining. When the liver is not badly 



* Vet. News, 1911, p. 318. 



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