460 DISEASE IN WILD MAMMALS AND BIRDS 
Daubentonia longifolia; Senecio jacohia burcJielli latifo- 
lius. (33) Some of these as the Amanita are only occasional 
sources of disaster, but as they frequently involve man 
they are important. The Amanita muscaria sjTiiptoms 
appear very soon after eating the fungus and consist of 
a deepening stupor. A. phalloides, on the contrary, starts 
with severe abdominal pain, cramps, discharges of blood 
and mucus and later convulsions. The meat of animals 
dying from fungus poisoning is distinctly poisonous. 
This transfer of poison to the muscles of the animal par- 
taking of these plants occurs also in poisonmg 
■vWth Kalmia. 
The other plants of this list are closely associated 
with the grass foods and are consumed usually when the 
food on a range is scarce. Some groups as the Asclepias 
contain a distinct neurotoxin and give rise to a condition 
knowm as trembles or staggers. It affects mostly cows 
and sheep, causing staggering, trembling gait, bloating 
and salivation and death with convulsions. There is 
marked congestion of alimentary tract, liver and kidney. 
In the cerebrospinal axis there are marked changes in the 
nei've cells of the medulla and spinal cord. The Purkinje 
cells show the effect of extreme fatigue. Other plants 
causing stiffness or weakness of the extremities, show 
on microscopic examination no definite lesions in the 
cerebrospinal axis. Loco weed — Astragalus mollissimus 
and Aragallus lamhertii — causes maniacal disturbances 
but no gross lesions. This weed in Colorado costs the 
state enormous amounts of money yearly. 
Helenium poisons domestic animals by means of a 
toxic glucoside, dugaldin, which produces stiffness, sali- 
vation and nausea with mild depression C spemng 
sickness ") . The alimentaiy tract shows severe inflamma- 
tion of the rumen and reticulum which may at times be 
hemorrhagic. The liver usually presents an interstitial 
(33) These botanical names are taken from Chestnut's Poisonous 
Plants of America. 
