RATTLEWEED OR LOCO-DISEASE. 
395 
RATTLEWEED OR LOCO-DISEASE. 
By Dk. J. P. Klenoh, Y.S. 
I have lately noticed in the American Veterinary Review 
of New York, a few notices that I consider to be of great interest 
to veterinary science, because they describe the effect of the 
rattleweed plant on horses and cattle in the large pastures of 
Nebraska, Kansas, Texas and the Territories, and call it Rattle¬ 
weed, or Loco-disease or Crotalisra, a disease that has not been 
described as such by any veterinarian authority in Europe or on 
this Continent. 
I had the good fortune of observing that disease near Modesto, 
where I could make daily visits to my patients; and I am glad 
to be able to communicate to the members of this Association my 
little experience about this singular disease. 
In September, 1887, a farmer called on me and asked my ad¬ 
vise for his rattleweeded horses. As I had never seen such 
patients before, I concluded to drive to this man’s ranch, where I 
found several horses showing great excitement; they could not 
be approached, so a close examination was impossible. I pre¬ 
scribed one drachm of bromide of potassium for each one every 
evening in the feed and two weeks later the horses were all right 
and good to work. Upon this happy result,'I thought I had a 
sure cure for rattleweed, and if that proved to be correct, I was 
a made man. But there is many a slip between the cup and the 
lip, and my hopes for wealth turned out to be very rattleweeded 
indeed. That was the first and last cure I ever effected. Never¬ 
theless, I intended to follow up that disease and found a good op¬ 
portunity at the next ranch, where all the mules and horses were 
affected. So I drove up to this man’s place and offered to cure 
- his animals for ten dollars apiece, no cure, no pay. “All right,” 
said the man , u there is a mule that came near killing me this morn¬ 
ing. I had to knock her down with a fence rail and tied that 
heavy chain, twenty feet long, on a fore-leg, to keep her from 
jumping at me.” I kept at a fair distance from that mule, but 
there was a family horse, very quiet, that I accepted for study¬ 
ing upon. 
