TRANSLATIONS FROM CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 737 
the fifth day the pain on pressing the loins was not so great, 
the urine had lost its redness, and the sediment much of its 
character. On the eighth day the malady had disappeared, leav¬ 
ing the urine only a little thick; this was remedied by the 
administration of turpentine, given in a ball. Four days later 
the animals were convalescent, and placed on half rations. 
Neat cattle. —Two cases of poisoning by the Colchicum 
autumnalis. Scarcity and bad quality of fodder induced many of 
the farmers to make it into manure, and to pasture the cattle 
on the meadows. This was done at the suggestion of the 
author, to prevent those diseases so difficult to treat, which 
are caused by the development of cryptogamic plants on 
the vitiated forage. One of these meadows abounded with 
the Colchicum autumnalis . Of twenty beasts, two fell a sacrifice 
to the noxious plant, which was the more fatal as the previous 
scarcity caused the animals to feed with great avidity; to 
which must be added debility of the digestive organs from 
the same cause. The symptoms were—tympanitis, arching of 
the back, staring coat, the head hanging down, emission of 
gas by the anus, which was soon followed by a fetid diarrhoea 
of a black colour, mixed with globules of gas; the urine of a 
reddish colour; uninterrupted moaning; countenance anxious; 
pupils dilated ; pulse imperceptible ; respiration accelerated. 
The summary of these symptoms left no doubt on the mind 
of the author as to the termination of the malady. Both of 
the animals died four days after they had been turned out 
to grass; the others, which seemed to have eaten less of the 
noxious plant, were severally attacked with gastritis, but all 
recovered. 
Autopsy. —The rumen was very much distended, and 
literally surrounded with the leaves of the colchicum; the 
small and large intestines were injected throughout; the 
latter contained the diarrhoetic liquid, the fetid odour of 
which was the same as that disengaged. The kidneys were 
somewhat softened; the lungs and heart were healthy ; the 
meninges of the brain were injected; the blood-vessels on 
the outside of the organ were gorged with blood, and of a 
darker colour than usual; there was no softening of the 
cerebral substance, but a little fluid of a citron colour was 
found in the ventricles. 
From the preceding it appears that the colchicum acts as 
a narcotico-acrid poison. 
XXXIV. 
54 
