438 
POISONING BV COLCHICUM. 
a shelter and a little dry straw were not afforded them. The 
appearances of the stomach and intestines seem to indicate 
that something noxious had been taken with the food, and 
indeed the most reasonable supposition appears to be that 
they had eaten of some of the many poisonous herbs with 
which the hedgerows abound at this season of the year, and 
no means having been adopted to counteract this, and no 
proper care or treatment resorted to, they continued to sink, 
and died at length from sheer exhaustion of nervous energy. 
It is precisely in this way that many of the vegetable poi¬ 
sons produce death, and the post-mortem appearances in 
these cases are quite consistent with this supposition. Let 
it be understood, however, that I have given this as a con¬ 
jecture, and no more.” 
That these were cases of poisoning by some narcotic vege¬ 
table I have not the slightest doubt; for, of course, the 
farrier’s theory of lightning is too ridiculous to be spoken 
of seriously in this place, although, as will be seen, I was 
under the necessity of treating it with some gravity in my 
report to the Directors. The whole case is an excellent illus¬ 
tration of what I have already called “ the low amount of 
intelligence generally brought to bear on the diseases of 
cattle.” Looking at the length of time which some of the 
animals survived the first serious symptoms, it is more than 
probable that with an} r thing like proper treatment their lives 
might have been saved; but the fact was that, after the light¬ 
ning theory had been so happily conceived, the poor animals 
were abandoned to their fate, and the consequence was hardly 
to be wondered at. What might have been the particular 
agent of the mischief I cannot presume to say. Perhaps 
I ought to have searched the meadows, with a view to this 
discovery, but it must be borne in mind that I was more 
likely to be misled than properly informed in my investiga¬ 
tions, for my inquiries were looked upon with great jealousy 
by the parties interested, as being hostile to their claim for 
compensation, and I had some difficulty in obtaining the 
slightest information of a nature to be relied on. Nor did 
I feel myself called upon to go further in the matter. I was 
satisfied at the time that they were simply cases of inadver¬ 
tent vegetable poisoning, and a more enlarged experience 
has only tended to confirm that impression. They are 
curious, at ail events, for the extravagance of the assumption 
by which ignorance sought to explain them, and I have 
given this publicity to their reminiscence, because they seem 
to illustrate several of the observations which I made in 
the early part of this article. 
