254 ' 
.TAMES LAW. 
1st. That similar results (and especially the dry gangrene of 
the extremities) are well known to occur from this cause. 
2d. That on all the farms where the disease was observed, and 
where any of the kind of hay or cornstalks fed to the animals be¬ 
fore the attack could still be examined, it was found to be badly 
affected with ergot or smut. In Kansas this was wild rye 
{Elymus virginicus), millet, and maize; in Illinois, red-top, {Ag- 
rostis vulgaris) and maize. 
3d. That when the hay of last year’s crop (1883) could be 
compared with that of the previous year (1882), as at Faunce’s, 
it was found that the ergot in the former was much more abun¬ 
dant than in the latter. 
4th. That animals, such as swine, running with the cattle but 
feeding mainly on corn (maize) and consuming little or no hay, 
escaped without exception. 
5th. That sheep and goats, which are more dainty in their 
feeding, taking in food in small morsels with their delicate, mo¬ 
bile lips, and habitually rejecting whatever is unpalatable, invari¬ 
ably escaped, though running with the sick cattle and supplied 
with the same fodder. Cattle, taking in large mouthfuls with 
their long, barbed tongues, make no such selection. 
6th. That in a number of cases the disease began during a 
period of intense cold, when the supply of drinking water was 
less constant and abundant in connection with the freezing of 
ponds and drinking troughs. 
7th. That in different instances the herds were driven once 
a day to the pond where the ice had been broken, and in such 
cases it is well known that the tendency is for the leaders of the 
herd to stand for a time about the openings, drinking little on 
account of the cold of their bodies, of the air, and of the water, 
yet keeping back the weaker cattle, which in their turn tend to 
follow the herd, some without drinking, when a start is made back 
to the yards. It is well established that the action of er«;ot is 
always intensified by a deficient supply of water. 
8th. Dry gangrene has been unusually prevalent in the 
different Northern States in the present year, and this, taken in 
connection with the excess of ergot in last year’s hay, in cases 
