THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XLIY 
No. 518. 
FEBRUARY, 1871. 
Fourth Series. 
No. 194. 
Communications and Cases. 
ACORN-POISONING. 
By Professors Simonds and Brown. 
Some difficulty has been felt and expressed by practical 
men in reference to the use of the word “ poisonous ” as ap- 
plied to acorns, which are universally recognised as valuable 
articles of food ; it is alleged with truth that animals of 
various kinds eat acorns with impunity. Pigs particularly 
thrive upon them, even when they are allowed to eat them in 
unlimited quantities. Deer also consume them, and cattle 
eat them in ordinary seasons without being so markedly 
affected by them, unless from eating to excess, as to excite 
any attention. 
It is, however, quite possible, and, indeed, not altogether 
improbable, that the ill effects of feeding on acorns may not 
always be so marked under ordinary conditions as to lead to 
an association of the effects with the real cause. Some 
farmers attribute the (( kernels” — which are sometimes seen 
in the muscles of pigs in acorn districts — to the consumption 
of acorns. We have often met with enlargement and harden- 
ing of the lymphatic glands of pigs which have fed on these 
seeds, but we have no experimental evidence of the connection 
which is alleged to exist between the use of acorns for food and 
the production of a hard and “ kernelly” state of the meat. 
We have no intention to discuss the actual position which 
acorns assume in the food list ; all the facts which have been 
adduced in proof of their value as provender we accept 
without any hesitation, but there are also other facts, equally 
well supported by evidence, not so generally received, relating 
to the effects of acorns on young cattle in certain seasons and 
under certain conditions, which will be considered in detail 
in the history of the disease of which acorns are the 
presumed cause. 
XL1V. 5 
