ACORN-POISONING. 
11 
That many animals die at this particular time of year is 
certain, but, judging from post-mortem examinations, I do 
not think we must blame the acorns any more than the leaves, 
grass, &c., with which, in every case recorded, they have been 
more or less mixed up. In autumn, from frost and other 
agencies, the quality of the herbage is greatly deteriorated, 
and in the early morning does not taste so palatable as later 
in the day, when the animals, being ravenous for food, eat up 
hurriedly all within their reach, be it grass, leaves, acorns, 
cups or pedicles, swallowing at the same time earth and other 
foreign agents in greater or less quantities. 
Again, at the period of the year when acorns fall in the 
greatest abundance, the animals are moulting, and this 
moulting produces an amount of debility, especially in the 
young and growing, but varying in degree, according to the 
particular constitution and condition of each individual. 
Those that are the weakest suffer most from the rumen not 
being sufficiently powerful to throw back its contents for re- 
mastication, while the mixture of food, &c., remaining cold in 
its cavity, sets up mechanical irritation of the coats of the 
viscus, and, as a consequence of such irritation, causing suspen- 
sion of the vital functions, constipation of the bowels ensues, 
and as the irritation extends through the alimentary canal 
diarrhoea follows. The so-called acorn-poisoning is only found 
in those animals that have been badly done, which are of course 
more susceptible to this mechanical irritation than the well- 
fed, in consequence of the latter possessing greater tone in 
the whole of the functions, and when feeding eating more 
slowly than the half-starved. It may be asked why pigs do 
not suffer from this cause equally with cattle ? The answer 
is, because the pig when at liberty picks up his food here and 
there, keeping up a continual trot, sometimes going miles 
when feeding, thereby arousing the vital functions, but cattle 
eat all within their reach almost without moving. That this 
idea is more correct than the one of there being a poisonous 
property in the composition of the acorn, is proved, I think, 
by the fact of the healthiest and strongest animals making 
acorns their principal food, and this with advantage. 
The great preventive to death at this season would be 
to take care that none of the cattle turned out in any locality 
should be in an emaciated condition. 
