45 



Laurel leaves (commonly used for decorative purposes in winter), or 

 the flowering branches, are often carelessly thrown into inclosures 

 where animals are kept. The older cattle are not so frequently killed 

 by it, but they are by no means immune. Horses and even goats have 

 died from eating the leaves, and in May, 1895, a monkey was killed at 

 the National Zoological Park, at Washington, D. C, by eating a few 

 flowers and leaves offered to it by a visitor. Deer and grouse are said 

 to be immune, and it is claimed that their flesh, especially that of the 

 ruffed grouse, is poisonous when they have fed upon it. It is stated 

 that chickens have been poisoned by eating the vomited matter from 

 poisoned animals. Experiments 

 show, however, that they are able 

 to withstand considerable quan- 

 tities of the pure poison when it 

 is fed to them. In these experi- 

 ments the chickens were killed 

 with chloroform after dosing for 

 a few days. The entrails were 

 then cast aside, and the well- 

 boiled meat was fed to cats with 

 nearly fatal results. The honey 

 derived from the nectar of the 

 flower appears to be poisonous 

 under some conditions. Oases of 

 human poisoning occur indirectly 

 in the ways indicated above; 

 directly by overdoses, or improper 

 use in domestic medicine, prob- 

 ably by the secret and criminal 

 use of the leaves to increase the 

 intoxicating effects of liquors, 

 and, in children, by their eating 

 the young shoots by mistake for 

 the wintergreen ( Gaultheria pro- 

 cumbens). 



Symptoms and antidote. — The general symptoms in sheep may be taken 

 as representative for those m cows and goats. They are as follows: 

 Persistent nausea, with slight but long-continued vomiting and attempts 

 to vomit, frothing at mouth, grating of teeth, irregular breathing, 

 partial or complete loss of sight and feeling, dizziness, inability to stand, 

 extreme drowsiness, coma, and death. The irregularity of the respira- 

 tion is most characteristic, being present throughout the main part of 

 the attack. In addition to most of the above effects there is, in man, 

 severe pain in the head, an increased tendency to perspire, and often a 

 peculiar tingling sensation in the skin throughout the entire body. 

 Vomiting is very copiously produced, and consequently the effects are 



Fig. 24. — Broad-leaf laurel (Kalmia latifolia) : a, 

 flowering spray, one-third natural size; b, vertical 

 section of flower showing peculiar attachment of 

 stamens, natural size; c, fruiting caiisules, 

 natural size. 



