288 PROFESSOR C. E. MARSHALL ON 



The plant seems to be most dangerous in spring. At this season it puts forth thin, 

 succulent shoots before other vegetation appears, and it is consequently liable to be 

 eaten in large quantities as soon as the animals are turned out to graze. Later in the 

 year, when fodder is abundant, poisoning is less common and the symptoms less severe. 



The symptoms observed after tutu is eaten are very similar in both cattle and 

 sheep. Unsteadiness, stupor, and convulsions are the chief, and they usually occur in 

 this order. Any one of these may be predominant, but the convulsions are the most 

 characteristic. After being " tooted " the animals may show no symptoms until they 

 are aroused, when unsteadiness and staggering expose the condition. The animals, it is 

 said, frequently run about as if wild, often against obstacles, and if any water is near at 

 hand they may rush into it and be drowned. If such an accident does not occur, 

 convulsions of a clonic type develop, and the animals die in these or during the period 

 of exhaustion which follows. 



Other animals are affected in a similar manner. Fowls have been poisoned by 

 eating the seeds, and an elephant * by eating the young shoots. Pigs and rabbits t are 

 said to be immune, but the statement is untrue. This was proved for the pig by 

 Mr J. A. Gilrtjth (v. p. 290), and for the rabbit by myself. Men, and especially 

 children, have frequently been poisoned by eating the fruits (so-called " berries"). The 

 juice of these is innocuous, and was made into a beverage by the Maoris ; the seeds, 

 however, are poisonous. The main symptoms noted have been vomiting, giddiness, 

 stupor or excitement with delirium, convulsions, and coma ; but cases appear to have 

 varied considerably in the clinical picture they have presented. A notable effect is 

 loss of memory : in most of the cases of recovery described, there has been no remem- 

 brance of eating tutu, or of the convulsions and other symptoms which followed. 



Active Principle. 



The earliest recorded chemical investigation of the toot plant was made by Mr 

 W. Skey,J Analyst to the Geological Survey of New Zealand, and was published in 

 1869.§ By exhausting an alcoholic extract of the seeds of C. ruscifolia with ether, he 

 obtained a pale green viscid oil, five minims of which, administered to a cat, caused 

 almost immediate vomiting, followed in half an hour by uneasiness and convulsive 

 twitches of the ears and eyes accompanied by forward jerking of the head. These 

 symptoms culminated in a convulsive fit about one hour after the substance was 

 administered. The animal eventually recovered. He concluded that the active 

 principle existed in the oil, if it was not the oil itself ; and he conceived the idea that 



* Trans. N.Z. Instil, vol. ii. p. 399 [1869]. 



+ Ibid., vol. iii. p. 242 [1870]. J Ibid., vol. ii. p. 153 [1869]. 



§ Dr Laudkr Lindsay (I.e.) mentions that Dr Murray Thomson of Edinburgh undertook a chemical investigation 

 of the specimens brought home by him, but owing to Dr Thomson's removal to India the research was not completed. 

 Skky also states that "a great many experiments have from time to time been made upon the toot plant with the 

 object of extracting the formidable poison known by sad experience to exist therein"; but as no other mention is made 

 of these, they had probably ended in failure. 



