102 
OLAF SCHWARTZKOPFF. 
The symptoms described by Mr. Sayre are mostly correct, 
but some are exaggerated. That a locoed animal soon comes to 
prefer it (the plant) to any other food, and that the nutritive 
energy seems to be paralyzed, is contrary to my experiments. 
In January 1887, I fed a locoed donkey, who was sick for several 
months, for two days with grain (oats); he took this to him rare 
food, with considerable appetite and refused with a show of 
nausea the loco-plant. Here are miles of loco-weed, but no 
animal eats it, because there was during this winter plenty of 
grass, etc. The popular belief in the crazy or mad character of 
the symptoms caused by eating this plant I cannot agree with. 
A veterinary surgeon who knows about hydrocephalus, hydro¬ 
phobia, etc., cannot confound the effects of this poisonous plant 
with such classes of diseases. 
In February, 1887, a farmer called me to a very severe 
“ locoed ” horse. He told me that he lost several horses through 
the weed in the last few years. I could not get near the horse 
for examination or application of morphium, which I wanted to 
try again. The farmer shot the horse for autopsy, which I un¬ 
dertook at once. Result: Horse in poor condition, shot through 
the heart. On opening the cranium, I found the large sinuses 
were filled with a straw-colored fluid. Vessels of the pia mater 
injected. The gray brain-substance reddened and sedenuitous 
and cut surface glistering and moist. On the base of the brain, 
inside arachnoidse, about one teaspoonful of a pinkish fluid. 
Medulla oblongata and parts of cord taken from cervical and lum¬ 
bar regions; oedseinatous in appearance and moist in cut surface. 
Thoracic cavity : serous membrane normal, lungs normal; heart 
endocarditic in slight degree; aorta destroyed by the bullet. 
Abdominal cavity : stomach partially filled with ingesta; small 
intestines normal, no sign of irritation could be detected. Liver 
normal; kidneys normal; bladder half disturbed with urine of 
normal color. 
These are different results from those obtained in the autopsy 
of the cow made by Mr. Sayre. He says, in page 558, “ Through 
the entire length of the intestines, there seem to be a degenera¬ 
tion of tissue, being on the inside peculiarly soft. The perito¬ 
neum and omentum were inflamed, and throughout were found 
