454 
GRASS-STAGGERS IN CATTLE. 
the substance of the brain was highly inflamed. The cere¬ 
bellum was darker in colour than it ought to have been, but 
the inflammation had not extended to its substance. All the 
other organs appeared to be perfectly healthy. 
There was no difficulty whatever in coming to the conclu¬ 
sion that all the three were cases of grass-staggers. 
Remarks .—I believe this disease to be almost entirely con¬ 
fined to animals feeding on young rye-grass. I have seen a 
great number of cases, both last year and this, and every one 
of them occurred on that kind of pasture. I have never 
known it to take place on old pastures, unless in animals in 
very poor condition, and which had been changed from poor 
to a rich pasture; and 1 am inclined to think that it is not 
often a result of this. Where the disease has existed, and 
the unaffected animals are removed from the rye-grass to old 
pasture, all that is required is done to prevent any more 
attacks occurring. 
I believe this disease to be of more frequent occurrence in 
the south of Scotland than in any other part of this country, 
which I think it can only be accounted for in this way. In 
laying out the pasture, the only seeds used are the perennial 
rye-grass, in combination with a small quantity of red and 
white clover-seeds. Now, in summer, when cattle are put to 
feed on this kind of pasture, any clover present is soon eaten 
up, and then the rye-grass is the only food left for them. 
It soon begins to shoot, and being taken into the stomach 
in that seedy and indigestible state, acute dj^spepsia is soon 
set up, and as a result the brain becomes affected, owing to 
the great s} r mpathy that exists between the stomach and that 
organ. It is then that the true nature of the disease becomes 
apparent. 
Horses and sheep are also the subjects of this disease; but 
in the former it does not occur so often as in cattle, nor is it 
so fatal. 
The symptoms are not in every case exactly the same, al¬ 
though thev are so obvious that the disease need not be mis- 
taken for any other. The animals generally become affected 
while at pasture, and are first noticed to be in a dull state and 
apart from the rest, standing with their legs drawn under the 
body, and the nose generally a little protruded. Purging is 
sometimes present, but by no means invariably. T he pulse 
generally ranges from 70 to 90 in the minute, although in 
some cases it is not much accelerated in the first stage of the 
disease. The sight, in most cases, is entirely lost, and the 
eyes appear dull and glassy. There is a continual flow of 
