CAUSE OF IMMOBILITY. 
455 
2nd.—Frequently millers’ horses are fed exclusively on bran, 
which contains more than 17% of nitrogenous matter, and yet 
they are not disposed to the disease. 
3rd.—Brewers’ horses, feed for months on little hay, almost 
entirely on malt refuse, are not affected. 
4th.—Cattle are subject to the same disease, but with brewers 
feed are not affected. 
5th.—Experience shows that 90% of the cases occur between 
the middle of February and the commencement of September, 
3 T et the horses eat almost the same amount of the leguminosae 
during the other months. The quantitative difference of nitro¬ 
genous matter in the food, at the two seasons of the year, is so 
small that it cannot be considered the cause of the disease. 
6th.—The blood receives probably much less of the albumen 
from leguminous food than is generally supposed. As the 
hullings are generally boiled, the soluble legumin is mostly 
washed awav. 
i/ 
The Bavarian veterinary report of 1874 claimed a relation¬ 
ship between large crops of the leguminosae and immobility, 
but Dr. Winckler’s experience is opposed to this. The author 
has noted for a number of years, that the disease is most fre¬ 
quent when the crops are harvested in rainy seasons. He comes 
to the following conclusions : 
1st.—A special disposition to exudation does not exist in this 
disease. 
2nd.—An excessive quantity of albumen neither causes the 
disease, nor pre-disposes to it. 
It is evident however that the leguminosae contain a specific 
poison which causes immobility. 
Sippus, Scbrymaerkert, Yallada, Schwanefeldt, Biber, Schmid- 
lin and others attributed and ascribed nervous symptoms to the 
use of hop clover (medicago lupulina) chick vetch (sathyrus 
cicera) and the other leguminosae, which produced restlessness, 
paralysis, roaring, sleepiness, etc., etc. 
Dr. Winckler believes that the poison must be developed by 
heat and moisture, causing fermentation in these plants, which 
contain an excessive quantity of nitrogenous matter and phos- 
