ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OF THE A. V. C.-ITS HISTORY. 117 
were located hay had been fed which contained a considerable 
proportion of wild rye ergotized to an extreme degree. It is very 
probable that the cold weather had a considerable influence in de¬ 
veloping the effects of the ergot. Many cases occurred soon after 
a severe ice-storm or sleet, and with the appearance of milder 
weather new cases ceased to appear, although the same hay was 
still being fed. The two or three cases in Missouri are an excep¬ 
tion to this statement. 
ERGOTISM. 
“In conclusion, I would state that I have no doubt that the 
cases which I investigated, and the similar cases which occurred 
about the same time in other territories, were cases of ergotism. 
Prof. Stalker, of the Iowa University, and Prof. Faville, of the 
Colorado Agricultural College, have seen similar cases in their 
respective States, and concur in the opinion that they are due to 
poisoning from ergot.” 
ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OF THE A, V, C-ITS HISTORY. 
W. H. Hoskins, D.Y.S. 
A Paper read at the Alumni Meeting, February, 1884. 
Gentlemen of the Faculty and Fellow Graduates : 
Scarce ten years have passed since the noble efforts of a few 
unselfish and self-sacrificing men, amid indifference and deep-cut¬ 
ting criticism, that often was unjust in its source and fell heavily 
upon faithful and struggling workers, reared up in doubting but 
true hopes our alma mater, and in that short time it has become 
a pleasant duty for your fellow-member to write these lines of 
history of her graduates. Her birth foreshadowed a new era in 
the history of veterinary medicine and surgery in America, much 
of which has come to pass, and the future is as full of good prom¬ 
ise as it well could be. Her aims and purposes were right, and 
she has lived in noble grandeur through some of the most trying 
periods that ever an institution witnessed. All honor to her faith¬ 
ful, zealous and sacrificing laborers, and may she long live after 
