POISONING WITH COLCHICUM AUTUMNALE. 455 
frothy saliva from the mouth, and occasional fits of grinding 
the teeth. If the patient is a milk-cow, the secretion of the 
milk will be greatly suspended, and in some cases it will be 
completely stopped. As the disease advances, the patient 
either lies down in a state of coma, or frenzy sets in. The 
former is the most common, the animal lying with the head 
turned round on the shoulder, and continuing in that state till 
it dies. 
The only treatment from which I have seen any good 
result, consists (if the patient be not too much exhausted) in 
free bloodletting, which must be regulated according to the 
state of the pulse. The bowels must be opened; and, to 
accomplish this, a dose of brisk purgative medicine should be 
given, along with some stimulant. A seton or a blister may 
be applied to the back of the head, or perhaps both. Ene- 
mata should be thrown up occasionally, till the medicine 
operates, and laxative agents should be exhibited afterwards, 
to prevent the bowels from again becoming constipated. 
When the patient begins to recover, tonic medicines should 
be administered. Mr. Strangways, Lecturer on Anatomy 
in the Edinburgh Veterinary College, recommends sulphuric 
acid, in half-drachm doses (fluid), well diluted, as a valuable 
tonic in such cases. The animal should also have given it some 
gruel, along w ith half a pound of treacle, two or three times 
a day, and a little cut grass as soon as it is inclined to feed. 
When the disease begins in a stock, I w r ould recommend a 
change of pasture, which will almost always put a stop to its 
spreading further. 
Facts and Observations. 
POISONING WITH COLCHICUM AUTUMNALE. 
Mr. Wiiitemore, M.R.C.V.S, Shepton Mallet, states 
that recently he was called upon to attend some heifers that 
had been poisoned by eating the meadow’ saffron. Eighteen 
w r ere affected, and four had died before he w as called in. 
The symptoms presented were—rumination ceased, eyes 
sunk in their orbits, pupilary opening enlarged, coat staring, 
body cold, pulse imperceptible, violent purging, grinding 
of the teeth, moaning, frequently lying down, kicking at the 
abdomen, intense pain, and loss of pow r er of locomotion. 
