Am.  Joitr.  Pha&m.  \ 
July  1, 1872.  j 
American  Helenicce. 
309 
This  is  followed  by  twitchings  of  the  muscles  in  other  parts  of  the 
body,  which  increase  in  frequency  and  severity  until  they  pass  into 
general  convulsions  of  such  violence  as  to  throw  the  animal  upon  the 
ground.  The  spasms  recur  at  intervals  of  a  few  minutes,  and  in  most 
cases  terminate  in  the  death  of  the  animal,  unless  timely  remedies  are 
employed.  The  convulsions  are  of  an  atonic  character,  and  on  their 
cessation  the  animal  breaks  out  in  a  very  profuse  perspiration.  In 
the  intervals  between  the  spasms,  the  animal  will  eat  greedily.  The 
remedy  consists  in  the  prompt  administration  of  lard  or  oil  in  some 
form.  The  first  effects  are  observed  within  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes 
after  the  weed  has  been  swallowed.  The  active  properties  seem  to 
reside  chiefly  in  the  top  or  bloom  of  the  plant.  I  have  seen  sheep  eat 
with  seeming  impunity  the  young  plant.  On  the  other  hand,  cattle 
are  not  unfrequently  poisoned  in  the  late  fall  or  winter  by  eating  the 
dried  weed,  after  it  has  been  killed  by  the  frost.  It  is  very  rarely 
that  stock  raised  here  will  bite  it;  even  when  hitched  within  its  reach, 
unless  very  hungry  and  restless.  Horses  raised  in  Tennessee,  Ken- 
tucky or  Texas  are  often  poisoned  by  it.  A  few  years  ago  a  gen- 
tleman passed  through  this  place  with  a  drove  of  ponies,  about  twenty- 
five  in  number,  from  Texas.  He  arrived  about  noon,  and  remained 
until  four  o'clock  P.IVL,  when  he  started  forward  for  a  watering-place 
five  miles  distant.  The  animals,  meanwhile,  in  feeding  in  the  open 
lots  and  grounds  around  the  town,  had  picked  up  so  much  of  the  sneeze 
weed#that  eleven  of  them  died  before  reaching  the  watering-place. 
"A  very  small  quantity  of  the  sneeze  weed  suffices  to  cause  death 
in  an  animal.  Its  effects  on  the  human  economy  appear  to  be  equally 
deleterious.  A  few  years  ago  a  neighbor  of  mine  had  some  flour  pre- 
pared from  wheat  that  had  been  threshed  in  a  lot  in  which  the  sneeze 
weed  grew.  A  biscuit  made  from  this  flour  and  eaten  without  butter, 
produced  in  a  lady  general  nervous  twitching.  Two  other  members 
of  the  family  partook  of  the  biscuit,  but  ate  freely  of  butter  with  it, 
and  escaped  any  unpleasant  symptoms.  Four  negroes  eating  of  the 
same  biscuit,  without  butter,  were  all  poisoned.  They  presented  the 
same  phenomena  of  spasmodic  action  of  the  muscles,  accompanied 
with  more  or  less  delirium  and  loss  of  consciousness.  A  small  sack 
of  the  flour  was  sent  by  this  gentleman  to  his  sons  in  the  army,  before 
its  poisonous  character  had  appeared,  and  all  who  ate  of  it  were  af- 
fected in  a  similar  manner." 
Dr.  Lewis  writes  :  "  In  1866  a  squad  of  Federal  cavalry  was  sta>- 
