600 
A CASE OF POISONING BY HEMLOCK. 
By Air. John Holford, V.S., Northwich . 
Early in the morning of the LOth of May, in the present year, 
I was requested with all possible speed to attend a stock of dairy 
cows, consisting of twenty-five in number, the property of Mr. 
Bennet, of Losbock, who entered on the farm during the last 
spring. From the symptoms stated below, I suspected that the 
herbage must be the cause of the mischief. My first object was, 
therefore, to gain the history of the case, which was as follows. 
On the previous day the owner had turned the cattle into a 
meadow, for the first time since he entered on the farm, for the 
purpose of eating down the herbage, prior to turning in a quan- 
tity of sheep, which he intended to summer on the same land. 
On further inquiry from its late occupier, I found that this piece 
had been mown for a great number of successive years; and the 
reason he assigned was, that if any of the stock happened to get 
into this meadow, the milk of these animals was always sour on 
the following morning. 
A medical friend has since visited the place with me, and 
found it to be a marshy piece of ground, surrounded by a brook, 
which must, after any quantity of rain, have overflowed it. The 
herbage consisted of coarse grass of all kinds, and the common 
hemlock ( conium maculatum ) being particularly prevalent, which 
at once I thought a sufficient cause to account for the sufferings 
under which my patients were labouring. 
Symptoms . — On entering the cow-house of those that appeared 
to be worst, I found three seemingly lifeless ; but, on a close ex- 
amination, I with difficulty found the pulse, which was of an 
extremely feeble character, beating but little more than half so 
rapidly as when in health. The extremities were deathy cold, 
but respiration not much altered. The eyes were closed, and on 
elevating the lids the pupils were much dilated, and the retina 
not susceptible to light. The brain was powerfully affected, and, 
in fact, all the animals exhibited the coma somnolentium. The 
neck and head were extended, and, on lifting them up, they fell 
again to the ground like a piece of inanimate matter. The bowels 
were inactive, and the whole surface of the skin cold, with the 
hair standing erect. 
These were the symptoms of the three worst ; but, during the 
day, twenty-one more of the stock exhibited similar appearances 
but in a milder form. They were enabled to elevate their heads, 
but the muzzle was placed close to the side, instead of the pro- 
