I 
THE RECENT CATTLE DISEASE IN KANSAS. 289 
pose that many cases of so called mad itch in cattle are but in¬ 
stances of a gastric and cutaneous disorder due to the ingestion of 
ergot or smut. 
It should here be noted that a number of maladies usually 
classed with anthrax, but really caused by molds and other fungi, 
bear a close resemblance in many respects to the disorders caused 
by ergot or smut. 
SYMPTOMS OF NERVOUS ERGOTISM. 
This has been more commonly observed in the north of Europe, 
while the gangrenous form has prevailed farther south. In ex¬ 
planation Heusinger suggests that the greater abundance of ergot 
acknowledged to exist in Southern Europe, and notably in Sologne, 
determines a more rapid poisoning and a different class of symp¬ 
toms. To a certain extent this is negatived by the experiments 
of Wright, who found convulsions, local spasms, and paralysis 
associated with intestinal disorder as the result of the administra¬ 
tion of large doses of ergot, but in no case anything approaching 
gangrene. In the worst cases in Kansas, too (Bead’s ox, which 
died in twenty-four hours, and Keith’s calf, which died in two days), 
the lesions were not those of dry gangrene, but of inflammation of 
the alimentary mucous membrane. The explanation is probably 
to be found rather in the conditions under which the ergot has 
been grown and the stage at which it had been harvested. 
The nervous form of ergotism is usually ushered in by some loss 
of nervous power, accompanied or not by digestive disturbance. 
There is at first vertigo and unsteady gait, with a marked disposi¬ 
tion to lie down and remain so until urged to get up. The hair 
or feathers lose their luster and the skin its heat. The senses of 
touch, sight and hearing vary, being dull and obtuse at first and 
afterward morbidly and even painfully acute, though with these 
periods of hypersesthesia intervals of torpor and obtuseness may 
still alternate. During these periods the pupils are dilated. 
Constipation is an early symptom, usually followed by an irritable 
diarrhea, the faeces being covered by mucus or mixed with it, or 
even with blood. The digestive disorder is further indicated by 
nausea (vomiting in swine and carnivora), congestive spasms or 
