661 
THE POISONING OF A COW BY HYOSCYAMUS 
NIGER, OR BLACK tIENBANE. 
[Extracted from a communication by M. Creuzel to the “ Propagation Agri¬ 
cole,” Mai 1840.] 
In the commencement of the spring of the last year a cow going 
from her stable to drink found in the yard some green plants which 
she greedily ate. It was a mixture of mallows and black henbane. 
Two^ hours after her return to the stable the cowherd saw her 
suddenly fall and abandon herself to very strange and violent 
struggles. Thinking that it was an attack of epilepsy, he sent for 
me, and I was with her in about twenty minutes. 
She had been taken out of the cowhouse on account of her 
strange and dangerous struggles. The pupils of the eyes were 
very much dilated—the conjuctiva was injected, and of a red violet 
colour—the carotids beat violently, and their pulsations could be 
plainly seen. The cow resting on her fore legs was making the 
most violent efforts to raise herself, and which she at length effected 
with very great difficulty. She then attempted to move forward, 
uttering the most fearful lowings; but she soon fell again, dashing 
her head against the ground. To this general convulsions suc¬ 
ceeded, the respiration became loud and convulsive—a thick spume 
proceeded from her mouth, and she began to purge violently. I 
had never before seen so strange and so alarming a series of 
symptoms. 
Being interrogated as to the cause of all this, the cowherd told 
me that he knew not to what to attribute it. He only recollected 
that the cow, in passing through the yard, had devoured certain 
herbs, which the other inhabitants of the dairy had left untouched. 
“ It even seemed,” said he, that when the other cows accidentally 
smelled them they turned away as if disgusted with their odour. 
I immediately went to examine these fearful productions, and 
found that she had been eating some roots of black henbane. It 
was probable that the poison had been ruminated and had passed 
into the abomasum, since two hours elapsed before these alarming 
symptoms began to appear. It was in this organ that it was deve¬ 
loping its deleterious agency, stimulating the heart and the brain, 
and giving rise to all the morbid symptoms which we had seen. 
The congestion of the brain, which appeared to me to be the cause 
of these convulsions and of the palsy of the hind quarters, was ra¬ 
pidly increasing, and the animal was evidently in the most immi¬ 
nent danger. 
1 opened the coccygeal artery, about four inches from the anus, 
and the blood flowed immediately in a little stream. If was pre- 
