DELPHINOSIS LATHYRISMUS 49 



The Cowbane (Cicuta mactilata) and related species be- 



Poisoning from long to the Carrot family. The Cowbane is common in low 



Umbelliferae. grounds in the Northern States and in the Rocky Mountains ; 



another species (C. vagans) occurs on the Pacific Coast; and 



a third species (C. bulbifera) is a common bog plant in the Northern States. 



The Cowbane is frequently mis-called Wild Parsnip. The latter, however, 

 has a conical root and is the feral form of our cultivated species, and, although 

 it may be somewhat injurious, as indicated elsewhere, is not poisonous like 

 the Cowbane {Cicuta macula ta). 



Cowbane is a smooth, marsh perennial plant from 2-5 feet high, with 

 fleshy, fascicled roots and a pungent odor; leaves are pinnately compound with 

 coarsely-serrate leaflets ; flowers are white and small ; fruit broadly ovate to 

 oval and small. The European species has long been recogniEed as poisonous. 

 Many cases of poisoning of man and lower animals by this plant are on record. 



Cases of poisoning of children by Cowbane are not of infrequent occur- 

 rence, several . being reported each year in the daily press. 



The following item appeared in the Des Moines Register and Leader of 

 May 23, 1909, and is but one of many that have come under the observation of 

 the writer during the last twenty years. 



Boone, May 22. — "Virgil Hyatt, a high school boy, was poisoned last night 

 while walking to the Ledges, a summer resort near Boone. He fell to the 

 ground unconscious, and a companion carried him to a nearby farm house, 

 and summoned medical aid and his mother from Boone. The trip was made in 

 an automobile at record breaking speed. The boy was brought to a hospital 

 here (Boone) but died just as he was being carried into the institution." 



It seems that the young man, while walking across a plowed field with a 

 companion picked up some of the weed whose roots had been exposed and ate 

 freely of them. In an hour he complained of illness, and fell into the creek 

 from which his companion rescued him. However, as reported above, all at- 

 tempts to save his life were unavailing and he died from convulsions in a 

 few hours. 



As a sequel to the above, the daily papers of June 3, of the same year 

 report a second death in the same locality from the same cause. In this case 

 a young man who was sent to secure some of the weed for examination, be- 

 came poisoned in some way, possibly by the juice of the plant coming in con- 

 tact with some abrasion of the skin. The lad died after a short illness, having 

 shown symptoms similar to those of the previous case. 



Symptoms. The first symptoms are pain in the bowels, urging to ineff'ectual 

 attempts to evacuation, burning in the stomach, nausea, vomiting, tetanic con- 

 vulsions which may be severe resembling those produced by strychnin, or 

 there may be coma without convulsions. 



Dr. Hazeltine says that, in one case, he found the patient "showing con- 

 vulsive agitations consisting of tremors, violent contractions and distortions 

 with imperfect relaxations of the whole muscular system, astonishing mobility 

 of the eyeballs and eyelids, with wide dilated pupils, frothing at the mouth 

 and nose mixed with blood, and, occasionally, genuine, violent epilepsy." 



The convulsive agitations were so violent that the pulse could not be ex- 

 amined with sufficient accuracy to determine its character. There is a profuse 

 sweat. In fatal cases, the respiration is stertorious, the pulse small, and the 

 face cyanotic. Not many cases among animals have been recorded. In a case 



