58 PASTURE AND RANGE. 
eat enough to harm them. In the case of cattle the re- 
sults are quite different, the plant proving very poison- 
ous, especially in the early spring when the cattle eat the 
young growth greedily. Poisoning also occurs at other 
times, when animals are changed to a new range, or in 
autumn when other plants are covered by snow and cattle 
are sometimes tempted to feed on the projecting seed cap- 
sules of the taller forms. 
The principal poisons contained are two alkaloids, del- 
phinin and staphisagrin, of which the former is the more 
harmful. The first symptoms noticed are 
Poisons a stiffness of the limbs, and a somewhat 
Contained and : . : 3 : 
Symptoms straddling gait. Respiration is slow at 
first, then rapid. In one heifer it in- 
creased to 128 per minute. The appetite is not much im- 
paired and the brain functions normally, though the sick 
animals are easily frightened. There is constipation and 
abdominal pain, and in the later stages nausea and 
vomiting, from which death often results by suffocation. 
Bloating is sometimes present, but is not common before 
death, although taking place rapidly afterward. ‘A quiv- 
ering of the muscles and weakness is prominent, the legs 
crumpling up under the animal. Congestion of heart, 
lungs and central nervous system and inflammation espe- 
cially of the rumen, the oesophagus and the pyloric end 
of the fourth stomach are post-mortem indications. The 
alkaloid evidently acts as a local irritant and a nerve de- 
pressant. If recovery takes place it is usually very rapid. 
The treatment indicated is (1) magnesium sulphate to 
overcome the constipation, (2) a chemical antidote for 
the poison remaining in the stomach, and (3) 
injections of a physiological antidote for that 
which has been absorbed. Chesnut and Wilcox recom- 
Treatment 
